Topic: Everything Education / Reentry practices, concerns

You are at least currently right. Re entry presently is a joke as indicated by the costs with and high rates of recidivism.
Re entry if supported, funded and prudently implemented could be just the answer to excessive costs associated with high recidivism.

Topic: Everything Education / Need to measure success of offender programs?

I have been in corrections casework for about 20 years in some capacity and in all that time I have seen many programs implemented. There are infact several factors that determine the success of a program—staff quality—legitimacy of the program and agency committment to it— the reliability and validity of the instrument tool utilized for measurement.
When all three components converge, programs goals can be acheived. The absence of one of the three, failure is likely.

Topic: The Club House / Specific Interview Questions

Many people don’t even consider corrections as a career path. I’m glad to hear of your choice. It is truely a noble undertaking. I sincerely hope you find more satisfaction than disappointment. You will get out of your career what you put into it.
If you are not currently experiencing difficultly with alcohol, the issue should never come up. Past medical or health concerns are infact, off limits as a line of questioning in hiring. If by chance it is mentioned, simply state that you have no troubles with alcohol. Which by the way currently a true statement.
Focus on positives in the interview process. Steer clear of negatives.
Hope this helps!!!

Daniel P. Downen M.S. AJ/S

Topic: Juvenile Jam / suicidal juveniles

Dear mamak;

It is true that most suicide attempts are simply an attention getting ploy. Yet some are genuinely considering self harm and some are set on it due to depression or other serious mental dysfunction. The real and most compelling problem I take with this issue is that most co’s and dentention officers are in fact insufficiently trained and unprepared to effective intervene.
Corrections management must devote more attention, traning and resources towards this issue. It is my experience and research that the majority of inmates and detainees do in fact, suffer from some varying degrees of mental illness. A new and more innovatively aggressive strategy must be developement and implemented.
However, it is always better to err on the side of caution and treat every threat of suicide or gesture as serious.
It must be noted that acting out suicidal behavior often ends with accidental success.
I hope this gives you some insight. It is my suggestion that if your facility is not supplying you with the need training on mental illness and suicide, you should seek it out yourself and research. Suicide Prevention and Crisis Intervention topics are great starting points.

Topic: A Broader View / Do treatment programs reduce recidivism?

The most obvious agents of change, the people in the trenches working every day and all day with offenders are co’s. These practitioners have the greatest potential for facilitating rehabilitation as they have the most contact with offenders. Yet, they are so poorly trained and unprepared for the overwhelming job of dealing with an inmate population, most of which are dealing with some form of mental dysfunction. No wonder burnout, absenteeism and personal problems are experienced by staff.
Prehaps we as an profession should step out of our traditional comfort zone and empower Correctional Officers to effectively do the job society employs them to do.
It is more than obvious to me, what we have done and what we are doing is not producing the intended results of reducing recidivism. It is time to re-think facility operations.

Daniel Downen M.S. AJ/S

Topic: A Broader View / Do treatment programs reduce recidivism?

The real and more compelling question for me is, do we as a correctional profession really dedicate ourselves to the concept of rehabilitation or is our efforts perfunctory?
I know we cling to the idea of treatment programming because it’s expediate for us. However, do we put forth a bona-fide effort to change the lives of offenders?
Daniel Downen M.S. AJ/S