Treatment Programmes. Cann. Impact of Cognitive Skills Program in Reducing Re-conviction.
To find out if cognitive skills programmes were effective in terms of lower re-offending rates for a sample of women prisoners.
180 offenders who started enhanced thinking skills (ETS) or reasoning & rehabilitation (R&R) between 1996-2000, including 14 non-completers. The comaprison group comprised 540 female offenders who did not participate in either programme.
All offenders were discharged in 1996-2000 and spent at least a year in the community following a custodial sentence of 6 months or more.
Expected 2-year re-conviction rates were calculated for all the women who were matched by whether they were at high, medium or low risk of re-conviction.
Actual re-conviction rates were calculated for 1 and 2 years after release.
Each individual programme was assessed for effectiveness.
No significant difference was found between the treated group and the comparison group on expected re-conviction or actual re-conviction.
No significant difference found for ETS but the R&R treated group did worse and were more significantly likely to re-offend.
The programmes worked for male offenders, and could be why the females didn't do well.
Women offend for different reasons from men and while they may have cognitive skills deficits, these are not necessarily criminal in nature.
Women offend due to drug abuse, relationship problems, emotional factors and severe financial hardship.
The programmes were inappropriate for the women's needs, having been developed for men and with men's risk factors in mind.
The programmes were not delivered consistently in the women's prisons and were limited in length, not meeting the standards in the description above.
Mainly nature side of debate.
Mainly individual explanation of debate.
Reductionism and holism.
Mainly determinism side of debate.
Mainly quantitative data.
Anger Management. Ireland. Investigation of Whether Anger Management Courses Work.
50 prisoners who had completed an anger management course and a control group of 37 prisoners who had been assessed as suitable for such a course, but not actually completed one.
Matched-pairs design.
They were matched on their responses to a cognitive behavioural interview, the Wing Behavioural Checklist (WBC) and a self report on anger management.
A quasi-experiment taking advantage of the two naturally occuring groups.
The measures were given before and after they did the programme, and those in the control group did the same, but without an intervention inbetween.
There was a significant reduction in prison wing-based aggression in the experimental group.
The experimental group scored lower on the self-report measures after completing the course, and there was no difference in the control group.
92% of prisoners in the experiment group showed improvement on one measure, 48% on two measures and 8% showed deterioration in both measures.
In short term, these prisoners have been helped by the programme, but there is no re-conviction data for the long term. There should be further investigation into the 8% that did worse.
Nature and nurture.
Individual and situational explanations.
Mainly reductionism side of debate.
Determinism and free will.
Mainly quantitative data.
Ear Acupuncture for Drug Rehabiliation. Wheatley. Use of Acupuncture to Treat Drug Addiction in Prisoners.
Opportunity sample.
350 prisoners in 6 high-security prisons who recieved acupuncture and the standard care programme, FOCUS.
A control group has the FOCUS programme, but no acupuncture.
Two trained professionals worked with groups of 10-15 prisoners in a relaxed setting. Needles were inserted into the five acupuncture points in the ear and prisoners relaxed for a 40-minute period. They then returned to their normal duties.
Prisoners reported better sleep, improved relaxation, reduced cravings for nicotine, and health improvements.
They made more effort to communicate with their families and attend classes.
Staff commented that they could tell when prisoners had been to acupuncture because the wing was calmer and there was less demand for healthcare services.
70% reduction in drug-related incidences from 6 months pre- to 6 months post-treatment.
41% reduction in serious incident reports.
42% reduction in positive drug testing results that are mandatory.
33% reduction in positive drug testing results that are voluntary.
Wheatley feels there is enough evidence to expand the delivery throughout the prison systems and believes that acupuncture works as a complimentary therapy with other programmes.
Nature and nurture.
Mainly situational explanation side of debate.
Reductionism and holism.
Determinism and free will.
Qualitative and quantitative data.
I'm really tempted to skip one of the chapters, but I can't... I'll do it last because I hate the topic.
