In some sense, the justice system seems straightforward: these individuals broke the law and must be punished for them. They forfeit certain rights because of their infraction and then are released when they’ve been properly punished.
But for those who actually experience the prison system, and their families and loved ones, the reality is slightly different. Often, former inmates find themselves in a world very different from the one they left years before. Without a job, money, connections or still battling the same issues that got them locked up, it’s hard to imagine anyone truly succeeding in rebuilding their life. This is why rehabilitation programs before and after release are so important.
The United States has incredibly high incarceration rates. Many of these individuals are released only to be arrested for another crime and return to the prison system. According to a 2019 report, the recidivism rate for state prisoners was 83% over a nine-year study period, that means that five out of six of released prisoners will be arrested for a new crime. These numbers were lower for federal prisoners who had rates of 39.8% and 64% for nonviolent and violent prisoners, respectively.
Americans need to support these individuals who are trying to rebuild their lives. The prison population shouldn’t be a forgotten portion of American life. We need to ensure that prisoners are given the proper training and opportunities to improve themselves and their prospects upon their release.
The road ahead is A New Direction Initiative a multifaceted rehabilitation program that focuses on what actually lead the individual to be in the position that he or she now finds themselves in PRISON.
A.N.D. provides individual and group counseling aimed at having offenders forfeit their criminal way of life. Over the years, various treatment modalities have been tried. Our programs target the criminal attitudes and ways of thinking that foster illegal behavior. Our interventions involve, for example, counselors modeling prosocial conduct and also reinforcing inmates when such conduct is exhibited. We also focus on the content of offenders’ thinking and reasoning. Our programs challenge the inmates’ antisocial attitudes, rationalizations supportive of criminal behaviors, attempts to externalize blame, and failure to confront the harm they have committed.
DESCRIPTION
A New Direction Initiative (A.N.D) is a Multimodal program that offers effective correctional programs that targets the inmate’s criminogenic needs that will reduce recidivism.
These are some of the areas we target:
- Antisocial Attitudes
- Antisocial feelings
- Criminal Thinking
- Reducing Antisocial peer associations
- Family Affection/Communication
- Identification/Association with Anti-criminal Role Models
- Increasing Self-control, Self Management and Problem Solving
- Replacing the skills of lying, stealing and aggression with pro-social alternatives
- Reduce chemical dependencies and substance abuse
PROGRAM DURATION
The Phase I program requires a total of 3 Trimesters (600 Hours) 12 months.
The Phase II program requires 3 Trimester (600 Hours) 12 months.
The Phase III program requires an additional 2 Trimester (400 Hours) 8 months.
Aftercare groups are recommended to be at least 6 months in duration, meeting bi-weekly for 1½ hours
Achievement levels are determined by the inmate’s completion of standards for each Trimester (4 months). Inmates completing 3 Trimesters within each phase are credited with a completion.
CRITERIA
The criteria for entry into the A New Direction program are threefold:
INMATES VOLUNTEER FOR THE PROGRAM
The inmate applicant volunteers for the program with full knowledge that s/he may have class and activity choices that have religious content. Inmates are interviewed and must read and sign the Voluntary Participation Statement.
SENTENCE
One or more year left on the participants sentence
MODERATE TO HIGH RISK INMATES
Matching offenders to programs based on their risk levels is one of the keys to reducing recidivism. Research has revealed that certain intensive programs work very well with high-risk offenders but actually can increase recidivism rates among low-risk offenders. Mixing risk groups exposes the lower-risk offenders to the more destructive behaviors of higher risk offenders and jeopardizes pro-social relationships and productive community engagement they may have.
Targeting higher-risk offenders with proven programs ensures that our limited resources are concentrated on offenders with whom they can have the greatest impact.
GOALS
- Safer environment not only for the inmates but the prison staff as well
- Channeling the inmates aggressiveness into something constructive
- Exposing the inmates to different positive ideas that will ultimately lead to interest
- Promoting a culture of safety and rehabilitation in prison
- Reducing the risk of the inmate committing another crime not only within the institution but also after their release from prison
- Raising the moral and work performance of the inmate population
- Curriculum of classes and activities that help inmates to establish a personal foundation of values and skills that are pro-social;
- Teach inmates how to make present and future plans for success;
- Character development;
- Provide instruction and opportunity to grow in family relationships countering anti-social behavior;
- Modify the culture of the correctional institution so that inmate employee interactions and inmate volunteer interactions all support the positive rehabilitative steps that inmates make;
- Lower disciplinary actions and have a positive effect on inmates institutional adjustment;
- Work performance of the inmate population
- Curriculum of classes and activities that help inmates to establish a personal foundation of values and skills that are pro-social;
- A venue created for offenders Atmosphere of learning that produce human excellence
- Safer environment not only for the inmates but the prison staff as well
- Exposing the inmates to different positive ideas that will ultimately lead to interest.
- Promoting a culture of safety and rehabilitation in prison
- Reducing the risk of the inmate committing another crime not only within the institution but also after their release from prison
Program Curriculums
Criminogenic needs are dynamic indicators that directly impact an individual’s propensity for criminal behavior. These dynamic indicators, or domains, are antisocial personality, criminal associates, substance abuse, family/marital, leisure/recreation, criminal thinking/attitude, and employment/school. Research suggests that reducing the criminogenic needs of an individual will result in a reduction in their potential for recidivism. Below are the domains that are targeted.
SOCIAL AWARNESS
This domain focuses on changing the pattern of manipulation, exploitation, and propensity for violating the rights of others by educating individuals about the impact of risky and antisocial behavior, and teaching and promoting prosocial interaction, anger management, problem-solving, and coping skills.
CRIMINAL THINKING
This domain focuses on challenging the reasoning and/or perceptions that lead to the violation of the accepted norms/conventions of society by providing individuals the opportunity to examine and identify thinking errors and triggers of criminal thinking, as well as to practice expanded thinking empathy, and prosocial cognition.
FAMILY/MARTIAL
This domain focuses on reducing familial conflict and strengthening familial relationships by assisting with activities that develop healthy support systems (i.e. encouraging letter writing, encouraging positive behavior to merit visitation privileges), teaching parenting skills, and emphasizing responsibility for dependent children.
FAITH
ELECTIVES
Programs not designated as a core program or address a criminogenic need, but that provides essential habitation skills shown to positively affect a criminogenic need, provide intrinsic, prosocial value or meet other institutional objectives.
MENTORING
This domain reflects the benefits that reside in opening up one’s life to one other person for the purpose of positive growth. One area of accountability is in being truthful with one other person about the fears and stresses of life as well as the strengths and successes.
VICTIM IMPACT
Inmates are required to complete victim awareness training. The majority of offenders never think about their victim as a human being. Many never even think about their victim at all. The use of panels, meetings with surrogate victims and victim awareness classes lead inmates to consider the effects of their behavior on their victims.
JOURNALING
In general, journals are the offenders’ vehicle for self-discovery, self-awareness, self-evaluation, and self-change. They are a tool for independent study and often become a “safe place” for offenders to first expose some of their antisocial thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and beliefs before exposing them in a group setting. For example, we can compare the process of journalizing to the process of putting a jigsaw puzzle together. Both processes occur in stages and require a lot of hard, tedious work
The basic attributes of journals are listed below:
- Journals should be task specific;
- Journals should be a daily record that:
- track effort over time, are objective records of thoughts, feelings, and actions, focus effort, and viewed as a tool to honestly communicate with self, others, and change agent;
- Initial usage should include at a minimum, a record of situations encountered and a record of corresponding thoughts and feelings;
- Advanced usage should include pattern identification, intervention development and progress monitoring and assessment; and
- Journals should depersonalize conflict while defining direction and upholding rules.