Transforming Corrections
Humanistic Approaches to Corrections
and Offender Treatment
second edition
David Polizzi
Indiana State University
Michael Braswell
East Tennessee State University
Matthew Draper
Utah Valley University
Foreword by Hans Toch
Carolina Academic Press
Durham, North Carolina
Copyright © 2014
Carolina Academic Press
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Transforming corrections : humanistic approaches to corrections and offender
treatment / [edited by] David Polizzi, Michael Braswell, and Matthew Draper.
-- Second edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61163-286-6 (alk. paper)
1. Corrections--United States. 2. Corrections--Philosophy. I. Polizzi, David.
II. Braswell, Michael. III. Draper, Matthew.
HV9471.T73 2013
365'.9730684--dc23
2013020640
Carolina Academic Press
700 Kent Street
Durham, North Carolina 27701
Telephone (919) 489-7486
Fax (919) 493-5668
www.cap-press.com
Printed in the United States of America
This book is dedicated to the memory of
Mike Arons and Richard Asarian.
Contents
Foreword xiii
Hans Toch
Chapter One · Introduction 3
David Polizzi and Michael Braswell
Corrections and Offender Treatment: An Alternative Voice 4
Humanistic Psychology and Phenomenology: A Reformulation
of the Problem 5
What is Transforming Corrections? 7
Rationale 8
Layout of the Book 9
References 12
Section I
Theoretical Reflections
Chapter Two · A Phenomenological Approach to Criminology 17
Christopher M. Aanstoos
A Phenomenological Philosophy for the Human Sciences 17
A Phenomenological Basis for Research in the Human Sciences 21
The Development of Human Science Methodology 22
A Sketch of a Phenomenological Methodology 27
Data Collection 27
Data Analysis 27
The Researcher’s Attitude 28
The Analysis of the Particular Experience 29
Analysis of the Phenomenon in General 31
Conclusion 34
Endnote 34
References 35
Chapter Three · Phenomenological and Existential Approaches to
Crime and Corrections 41
Hayden Smith and Kenneth Adams
vii
viii CONTENTS
Phenomenology 42
Phenomenological Research 43
Existential Phenomenology 44
Albert Camus 45
The Stranger: A Synopsis 46
Existential Phenomenology and Correctional Management 48
Conclusion 53
References 55
Chapter Four · Offender Objectification: Implications for
Social Change 57
John S. Ryals, Jr.
Introduction 57
Historical Perspectives of Objectification of Offenders 61
Current Perspectives of Offenders 63
Social Construction of Offender Characteristics 66
Functional Criminality 68
Separate and Not Equal 70
Social Importance of Offenders 72
Offenders’ Self-Definition as Reinforcement for Illegal Behaviors 74
From Objectification to Inclusion 75
Conclusion 77
References 78
Chapter Five · Theorizing Criminalized Subjectivities: Narrating
Silenced Identities 83
Dawn Moore
Introduction 83
Jenna and Tyler 84
Drug Treatment Court 87
Theorizing Conflicting Subjectivities 88
The Juridogenic Differend 92
Conclusion 96
References 97
Chapter Six · Dialogue: A Unique Perspective for Correctional
Counseling 99
Matthew R. Draper, Mark S. Green, and Ginger Faulkner
Review of the Theoretical Perspective 100
Brief Theory Summary 109
Implications for Therapy within a Correctional Institution 110
Conclusion 113
CONTENTS ix
References 113
Chapter Seven · The Good Lives Model: A Strength Based
Approach to Offender Rehabilitation 115
Tony Ward and Clare-Ann Fortune
Introduction 115
Theories of Offender Rehabilitation 117
The Good Lives Model 119
General Concepts 120
Etiological Aspects of the GLM 122
Intervention 124
Case Vignette 126
Conclusions 128
References 128
Chapter Eight · Transforming Corrections through Psychological
Jurisprudence Redux: Towards a Radical Philosophical and
Cultural Critique 131
Bruce A. Arrigo
Introduction 131
Psychological Jurisprudence, the Criminological Stranger, and the
Trans-Desistance Model 134
On the Deficit and Desistance Correctional Models: A Brief Review 135
The Trans-Desistance Correctional Model: An Overview 137
Transforming Corrections: A Preliminary Critique of Theory 146
Existential Phenomenology and Psychological Jurisprudence 146
Social Constructivism, Dialogical Humanism, and Psychological
Jurisprudence 148
The Good Lives Model, Technologies of the Self and Psychological
Jurisprudence 150
Conclusion 151
References 151
Section II
Humanistic Perspectives in Corrections
Chapter Nine · Mutual Respect and Effective Prison Management 159
Terry A. Kupers
Respect and Agency 160
Deprivation of Respect and Agency in Prison 162
Restoration of Respect and Agency as Rehabilitation 165
Conclusion 169
References 170
x CONTENTS
Chapter Ten · Civility in Prisons: A Radical Proposal 173
Catherine A. Jenks and John Randolph Fuller
The Job of the Correctional Officer 177
Civility in Prisons 182
Limitations and Qualifications 185
References 186
Chapter Eleven · Varieties of Restorative Justice: Therapeutic
Interventions in Context 189
Lana A. McDowell and John T. Whitehead
Needs of the Offender, Victim, and Community 190
The Restorative Justice Therapeutic Invention Process 191
Peacemaking Circles 192
Group Conferencing 194
Reparative Boards 195
Victim Offender Mediation/Reconciliation Programs 198
Victim Offender Panels 199
Social Justice Initiatives 200
Community Justice 203
Results of Restorative Justice 205
Conclusion 206
References 207
Chapter Twelve · Ambiguous Loss, Concrete Hope: Examining the
Prison Experience for Mothers from an Ambiguous Loss
Framework 211
Beth Easterling
Introduction 211
Double Jeopardy 212
Incarcerated Mothers’ Ambiguous Loss of Roles and Identity 214
Evidence of Ambiguous Loss 216
Ambiguous Loss, Roles and Identity: Implications from the Evidence 220
The Power of Ambiguous Loss: Research and Treatment 221
Policy Implications: Prison Programming 222
The Bigger Picture: Sociological Implications 224
Conclusion 225
References 226
Chapter Thirteen · How the “Positive” Can Influence Criminal
Behavior: Growing Out of Criminal Spin by Positive
Criminology Approaches 229
Natti Ronel and Dana Segev
CONTENTS xi
Introduction: The Criminal Spin and the Justice System 229
Positive Criminology: Challenging the Mainstream Approach 232
A Practical Model for Positive Criminology 234
Subsiding Criminality with Positive Criminology: The Ideology
Behind It 235
Conclusion 239
References 240
Section III
Client-Centered Themes in Offender Treatment
Chapter Fourteen · Correctional Treatment and The Human Spirit:
The Context of Relationship 247
Michael Braswell and Kristin Wells
The Lost Art of Relationships 252
Discipline and Obedience 254
PACTS: An Existential Model for Change 256
Paradox 257
Absurdity 258
Choosing 260
Transcending 263
Significant Emerging 267
Conclusion 267
References 269
Chapter Fifteen · Psycho-Spiritual Roots of Adolescent Violence:
The Importance of Rites of Passage 271
Drake Spaeth
References 283
Chapter Sixteen · Transforming Meaning: The Nexus Between the
Utilization of the Rogerian Framework and the Social
Construction of Pedophilic Sex Offenders 285
Roger Schaefer
The Client/Offender-Centered Approach 287
Socially Constructed Meanings: The True Barrier to the Utilization
of the Humanistic Approach 294
Anything But Human: The Social Construction of the Sexually
Based Offender 295
Conclusion 297
References 298
xii CONTENTS
Chapter Seventeen · Developing Therapeutic Trust with
Court-Ordered Clients 303
David Polizzi
Introduction 303
The Building of Therapeutic Trust in Offender Psychotherapy: Is It
Possible? 304
Therapeutic Trust and the Role of Resistance in Offender
Psychotherapy 306
How to Understand the Client’s Resistance to Coercive Treatment 308
How Does Resistance to Coercive Treatment Differ from the
Traditional Understanding of Resistance? 309
How to Overcome the Client’s Initial Resistance to Coercive
Treatment and Create the Possibility for Success in Therapy 310
Problems with Trust: Socially Constructed Barriers to Working
with the Criminal Justice Client 311
The Client’s Inability to Trust: The Social Construction of the
Therapist in Offender Psychotherapy 312
The Limitations of Trust in Offender Psychotherapy 313
Trust and the Therapeutic Frame: A Re-conceptualization of the
RNR Model from a Client-Centred Phenomenological
Perspective 315
The Theory of the Psychology of Criminal Conduct 315
Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) 320
Responsivity (Risk/Need) Profile: Toward a Phenomenology of
Forensic Psychotherapy 323
Building the Therapeutic Relationship: The Case of D 326
Postscript 329
Conclusion 329
References 329
Chapter Eighteen · Epilogue: Toward a More Humanistic
Future in Corrections 335
David Polizzi
References 338
About the Authors 339
Index 343
Foreword
One of the most convincing testimonials to human obduracy is the care
most of us take to preserve our repertoire of off-putting stereotypes—our con-
scious and unconscious assumptions about persons and groups who we have
concluded ought to be condemned, shunned, rejected, or repudiated. Unfor-
tunately, unflattering preconceptions have a way of being reciprocated by their
targets. The result in the aggregate is a world divided into factious enclaves
from which we warily scrutinize each others’ camp fires in the twilight sepa-
rated by protective moats.
Few human borders are more assiduously patrolled than that between in-
carcerated offenders and their keepers. Among the best-selling offerings of the
American Correctional Association (ACA)— proudly listed under their Man-
agement Resources— are a “Con Games Inmates Play (Second edition)” video,
a “Working with Manipulative Inmates” course, and assorted books with titles
such as “Games Criminals Play,” “The Art of the Con,” and “Strategies for Redi-
recting Inmate Deception.” The ACA as a rule does not market managerial
books or videos by inmates, but if it did, these would no doubt bear titles such
as “Initiating Prison Litigation (in Five Easy Lessons),” “Coping with Guard
Sadism, Corruption, and Brutality,” and “Why You Can Never Trust a Screw.”
A sure-fire prescription for engendering reciprocal mistrust is to avoid dis-
confirming information by refraining from human contacts by preventing their
occurrence. The consummate application of this strategy happens to be im-
prisonment, and its crowning achievement is that of “special housing” or seg-
regation units (up to and including the “supermaxes” described in chapter
nine) with regimes that completely isolate prisoners and separate them from
prison staff members. These contemporary high-tech dungeons are environ-
ments designed to ensure the perpetuation of prisoner-staff estrangement. The
inmates who survive such settings emerge seething with righteous resentment,
while the guards who have been monitoring the prisoners feel confirmed in
the view (which they volubly assert) that incarcerated men or women are the
lowermost scum of the earth.
xiii
xiv FOREWORD
The perpetuation of offender stereotyping in prisons must not be consid-
ered the domain of correctional officers. Despite predictable disclaimers to the
contrary, mental health workers can function as prime sources of rejection for
prison inmates. In fact, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, or nurses
who work in detention facilities are particularly well situated to act as agents
of dehumanization. “Therapeutic” encounters with inmates can be experiences
almost calculated to reinforce the denunciatory message of confinement or to
accentuate the deprivations of imprisonment. As a case in point, delivering
“mental health services” through the door of an isolation cell can nicely con-
vey indifference to pain and suffering. As an example of an even less ambigu-
ous communication, I know of no more effective way to advertise paranoia
than to demand that some inmate be shackled while one builds “rapport” with
him across a solid bullet-proof plastic partition.
For clinicians to pay homage to the demands of custody while they engage
in custodial overkill may be a deception that adds insult to injury. The evi-
dence suggests that most professionals in prisons are accorded a measure of
respect and authority in their domain—if nothing else, to preempt litigation—
and thus have more discretion in doing their work than they elect to exercise.
The hesitance to take ameliorative initiatives is often a matter of choice or pol-
icy, and the mantra “custody made me do it” can be an alibi. Assigning blame
to custody or the administration becomes a convenient way to preserve self-
respect while one colludes to keep anxiety-provoking offenders at a distance.
The avoidance behavior is apt to be transparent and it can cement the cyni-
cism of the offenders one has avoided. Rejection happens to be the response
offenders mostly expect and they have learned to react in kind. This response
of the offenders can be self-servingly deemed to be “ingratitude,” and one can
of course point to their resistance as evidence of their imperviousness to treat-
ment (chapter seventeen). The offenders thus conveniently become the bad
guys in the transaction, and this adds buttressing to one’s anxieties in dealing
with them. Along the way, correctional staff has made sure that no change
could possibly occur: no reappraisals will have been called for, either on the
staff member’s own part, or on the part of the offenders the staff has taken ex-
quisite care not to engage.
Psychological reappraisal in general becomes an issue in human intercourse
where encounters with previously stereotyped “others” provide intimations of
the shared humanity we have been schooled to ignore or suppress. At such
serendipitous (and discomfiting) junctures, there are potential opportunities
for discovery, growth, and development. Unsurprisingly, in real life (unlike in
some fiction), such opportunities are rarely utilized. What mostly takes place
FOREWORD xv
is a salvaging operation in which miniscule adjustments are enacted to pre-
serve one’s endangered world view. In other words, challenges to stereotypes
tend to be responded to with exercises in remedial tweaking.
The need for remedial tweaking is particularly acute where the “other”—e.g.,
the offender who looks to be human— also appears to be an impressive, con-
genial, or likable human being. To deal with this eventuality the safest course
of action is to invoke the principle of exceptionality. A staff person admits that
the offender is an interesting and attractive person, and further credits him
with the fact that he is interesting and attractive despite the fact that he is an
offender. The fact that the offender is a distinctive offender can then be used
to argue that he is an obvious exception to the rule.
If a correctional staff member wishes to relate to an offender as a gesture of
humanistic good will, the safest candidate for adoption is one who stands out
in some non-offense-related fashion, which facilitates his differentiation from
other offenders. If the staff member then needs to defend against the charge
that it is elitist to single out an offender-novelist, inmate-poet, or prisoner-
playwright for sponsorship, it is helpful if one’s protégé has a long prison sen-
tence, and has thus been certified by authorities as an offender of substance.
To be sure, hybrids are wildly unrepresentative in both their worlds, but being
exceptions they are safe to adopt— at least, until they re-offend.
Humanism is a broadly encompassing category— the approach comprises
a great deal of activity, as a reading of the ensuing chapters demonstrates. It,
at a minimum, connotes the effort (and capacity) to fully understand others
in the sense of intuiting the world as others perceive it. The skill is one that
Carl Rogers consistently prized and labeled as the capacity for accurate empa-
thy. The capacity is not a tool designed to serve one’s predilections or con-
venience. To know a person in this sense means to know the whole person
rather than select congenial attributes. Accurate empathy is in fact best de-
ployed where it is most difficult to exercise, where the distance to be bridged
is greatest. It is of least consequence where the experience of knowing others
is most inviting, where we deal with the amenable or familiar, as in caseloads
of hand-picked clients.
It is preliminarily enticing to suggest that one should distinguish between
the offender and his or her offense; however, an offense-less offender is fiction
and an offense committed by others becomes a different offense. Lastly, the
offender’s offense-related dispositions must be the subject of our professional
concern, and they must certainly be a subject of concern for the offender. In
some (restorative) paradigms, the offender’s motives are also of interest to
those who have been victimized (chapter eleven).
xvi FOREWORD
Humanistic approaches ideally are open minded and ecumenical. What
should matter is the achievement of consequential relationships (chapter ten),
not the technology whereby they are achieved. To accentuate or belabor sec-
tarian distinctions strikes me as unhelpful. For me, for example, the embod-
iment of a humanistic approach happened to have been that of Fritz Redl, who
was a Freudian psychoanalyst. Redl had a regulation Viennese accent, with
which he colloquially described the doings and perspectives of Detroit juve-
nile gang members. No one I know worked with institutionalized delinquents
more skillfully and authoritatively, and with more insight and love.
For my money, Redl was the Complete Humanist. He may or may not have
imbibed the requisite philosophical sources (he did have a doctorate in phi-
losophy), but Fritz Redl walked the walk. And what Redl had in spades is
Rogers’ third desideratum, which is that of genuineness. It is difficult to pre-
cisely define genuineness— it was so even for Rogers— but we know it when
we see it. More to the point, the offenders with whom we propose to deal know
genuineness when they see it. This matters, because when we approach an of-
fender—no matter how highly we may rate the nobility of our intentions—we
embark on an act of intrusion. To earn access we must gain trust, and we earn
trust by making ourselves genuinely accessible and having the offender respect
what he sees.
A book subtitled Humanistic Approaches to Corrections and Offender Treat-
ment manifestly does not mirror prevailing practices in corrections, nor re-
flect the dominant ethos of the times. Such a book instead gives some of us
heady sustenance and support in the goals that we secretly aspire to— it gives
us a sense of what might be achieved in the distant future, and what might al-
ready have been accomplished. The book is an invitation for us to “hang in
there” and persevere. “If you are not quite burned out, have not given up, and
are still fighting the odds,” the message of these chapters is, “you are not nearly
as alone as you sometimes feel out there on your limb.” The reassuring fact is
that there are enclaves of humanistic activity in correctional settings, and as
these experiments demonstrate their effectiveness, they are bound to ensure
the long-term survival of the approach.
Hans Toch
University at Albany
State University of New York
