Beyond Us & Them (formerly Center for Council’s) Jared Seide and Josh Jentzsch were asked by the Office of the Inspector General to testify before the California Rehabilitation Oversight Board (C-ROB) at its quarterly meeting on April 4, 2018.
In their presentation, and the discussion that followed, they offered recommendations and suggestions for supporting effective compassion-based inmate rehabilitation programs and ideas for improving implementation and evaluation in correctional facilities across the state.
This presentation and discussion focused on how providers, administration, and stakeholders can better understand, evaluate and support transformative rehabilitation programming throughout the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), within the context of the greater social justice continuum in which we all work.
They explained Beyond Us & Them’s systems-based approach, integrating the complex factors impacting all those touched by the criminal justice system and emphasizing the need for greater communication and relationship amongst stakeholders, as well as a more nuanced and responsive evaluation methodology that penetrates deeper than simple recidivism measures.
5 Dynamic Criminogenic Factors
They discussed 5 factors that that can cause or lead to criminal behavior and discussed ways that council-based practices, like those taught in their prison programs impact on these.
- Lack of empathy
- Impulsive behavior
- Anti-social attitudes
- Anti-social friends
- Substance abuse (indirect)
Inmate Rehabilitative Outcomes
- Improve Insight and Empathy
- Improve Communication Skills
- Decrease Impulsivity and Dysregulation
- Decrease Antisocial Attitudes and Behavior
- Prison Culture Change
- Safety & Security
- Reduce Violence and Improve Cooperation with Custody Staff
- Improve Respectful, Skillful Communication
- Train Inmate Facilitators to Lead Council Groups and Expand Program
Download the full PDF presentation here
View the Powerpoint presentation here
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