NCJ Number
86691
Journal
Corrections Magazine Volume: 9 Issue: 1 Dated: (February 1983) Pages: 30-35
Date Published
1983
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The use of the principles expressed in William Glasser's reality therapy and the book The Criminal Personality in the Maine Youth Facility, Maine's principal facility for juvenile delinquents, is described.
Abstract
The program, which has no name, has operated for more than 3 years in Cottage 1 of the center, under the direction of David Berenson. It uses the view that criminality results from the thinking patterns of individuals rather than from situational or other factors. Stanton Samenow, coauthor of The Criminal Personality, asserts that habitual criminals need an intensive moralistic treatment that will transform their value systems. He also says that the twisted moral outlook of habitual offenders is firmly rooted by the time they are 6 or 7 years old and that early treatment in programs like that in Maine has the best chance of success. Samenow also believes that criminals are basically aiming for excitement and control. Berenson's program in Cottage 1 at the Maine facility uses these concepts and those of reality therapy, which focuses on the reality of the individual's behavior rather than on the subconscious. Cottage 1 uses 'open channel' procedures, which require youths and their peers to face up to misdeeds and to report infractions by others. The treatment tools, which are designed to develop responsible behavior, include daily reflection hours in which boys record on paper the thinking errors they have committed in the past 24 hours and the ways they have handled them; redirection books, which are notebooks carried in each boy's shirt pocket; a 'moral inventory,' in which boys examine their effects on victims' lives; and dialogues, in which boys write about encounters between themselves and a person or emotion. The boys also hold daily group meetings. Although the program has not been formally evaluated, Cottage 1 has experienced a drastic drop in the number of runaways, the virtual elimination of smuggling and stealing, and no violence in 3 years. Officials also note that the boys in Cottage 1 are more open and more responsible than other youths in the correctional center.