Traditional measures of the therapeutic alliance do not capture the dual roles inherent in relationships with involuntary clients. Providers not only care for, but also have control over, involuntary clients. In 2 studies of probationers mandated to psychiatric treatment (n=90; n=322), the authors developed and validated the revised Dual-Role Relationships Inventory (DRI-R). The authors found that (a) relationship quality in mandated treatment involves caring and fairness, trust, and an authoritative (not authoritarian) style, (b) the DRI-R assesses these domains of relationship quality, is internally consistent, and relates in a theoretically coherent pattern with ratings of within-session behavior and with measures of the therapeutic alliance, relationship satisfaction, symptoms, and treatment motivation, and (c) the quality of dual-role relationships predicts future compliance with the rules, as assessed by probation violations and revocation. The DRI-R covaries with multiple domains more strongly than a leading measure of the therapeutic alliance, suggesting that it better captures the nature and effect of relationship quality in mandated treatment.

Assessing Relationship Quality in Mandated Community Treatment: Blending Care With Control

Recent trends toward a more punitive approach to juvenile crime have been heavily influenced by a body of review literature that reports that the traditional treatment approach is ineffective. The opinion that “nothing works” is largely based on reviews of the treatment literature. These reviews generally fail to document the amount of change associated with treatment. A meta-analysis of the primary research literature produced since 1960 was undertaken to assess the amount of change associated with various treatments of adjudicated delinquents. There were 111 studies identified that used a comparison group or pre-post design. Results indicated that treatment of adjudicated delinquents resulted in a positive change of .37 standard deviations. No consistent evidence on the relative efficacy of behavioral versus psychodynamic approaches was found. Recidivism was modestly reduced; institutional adjustment, psychological adjustment, and academic performance were all improved following treatment. The results o...

Effects of Residential Treatment on Adjudicated Delinquents: A Meta-Analysis:

This ethnographic research, conducted in a parole field office in central California, looks at how Feeley and Simon's (1992) "new penology" paradigm plays out at the level of implementation, given competing pressures on agents to be tough on crime as well as successful danger "risk managers." Findings suggest that agents embrace a traditional law enforcement role for themselves that primarily takes an individualistic approach to the clientele and an intuitive approach to their management, rather than taking on the new penological role of actuarial risk managers defined by upper management. The agents were influenced by the popular discourse on crime in defining their priorities and actively subverted directives management issued to reorder those priorities. As Simon (1993) foreshadowed in his work on parole, the agents in this setting did not appear poised to become mere human waste managers." In their conceptualization of the "new penology," Feeley and Simon (1992) argue that over the past few decades, a systems analysis approach to danger management has come to dominate criminal justice administration, and they suggest that the penal enterprise may well be evolving into a "waste management" system rather than a normalizing or rehabilitative one. In their model, those in the dangerous class of criminals are nearly synonymous with those in the larger social category of the underclass, a segment of the population that has been abandoned to a fate of poverty and despair. Ultimately, Feeley and Simon imply a deep institutional cynicism about the redemptability of this class in their suggestion that contemporary corrections may be inevitably heading toward an operational goal "of herding a specific population that cannot be disaggregated and transformed but only maintained-a kind of waste management function" (p. 470). Simon (1993) fleshes out the waste management analogy in his discussion of the potential futures for corrections. Since any investment in this dangerous class would be deemed futile, the waste management model would entail securing its members at the lowest possible cost. The "toxic waste" containment sites (Simon 1993:260) would be the underclass communities where those under the control of community corrections would be required to live, and in this potential postmodern penal world, front-line crime control workers would merely manage and distribute dangerous bodies, with little affective or relational involvement (Simon 1993). The pursuit of this goal of managing dangerous populations (or "waste managing") is manifested in the language and strategies of the "new penology." Specifically, Feeley and Simon (1992) delineate three distinct elements to the new penology: First, it is manifested in a new discourse that emphasizes risk and probability as applied to a criminal population rather than diagnosis or moralistic judgments of individual wrongdoers. Second, they posit that the new penology is reflected in objectives transformed from an earlier emphasis on punishing or normalizing deviants to a current focus on identifying and managing classes of criminals. Finally, they argue that this shift in objectives has triggered the development of a new set of techniques for carrying out the goals of classifying and controlling aggregate risk, including the use of drug testing to measure risk and statistical/ actuarial methods for setting risk level. At the heart of what distinguishes the "old" from the "new" penology is the relative abandonment of the individual in defining and managing criminal populations. The individual, in old penology, is a volitional actor who can be reformed, treated, or punished; thus, his motivation for criminal behavior is an important element to determining appropriate penal action. While old penological policies may refer to aggregates and categories of criminals, the interventions are distinctly aimed at changing the criminal actors or "individuals."' In contrast, new penological strategies, according to Feeley and Simon (1992), are not concerned with why criminals commit their illegal acts but rather with how to most efficiently manage the level of reoffending risk posed by them. …

Waste Managers? the New Penology, Crime Fighting, and Parole Agent Identity

Adding Spice to the Porridge: The development of a synthetic cannabinoid market in an English prison

A growing body of research suggests that high quality dual role relationships between community corrections officers and offenders reduce risk of recidivism. This study assesses whether this finding generalizes from offenders with mental illness to their relatively healthy counterparts. More importantly, this study tests the possibility that this finding is spurious, reflecting the influence of pre-existing offender characteristics more than a promising principle of practice. In this study of 109 parolees without mental illness, the authors found that (a) firm, fair, and caring relationships protect against rearrest, and (b) do so even after accounting for offenders' pre-existing personality traits and risk for recidivism. These findings are consistent with the theoretical notion that good dual role relationships are an essential element of core correctional practice, even (or particularly) for difficult or high risk offenders.

Firm, fair, and caring officer-offender relationships protect against supervision failure.

/pdf/a-theory-of-probation-supervision-3lyv3vlz0t.pdf

A theory of probation supervision.

The author would like to acknowledge the helpful assistance of Norman Johnston and Finbarr O’Connor during the preparation of this article. Dr. Klockars is Assistant Professor of Sociology, Beaver College. Although I have not yet seen the other articles in this issue on &dquo;Professionals in Corrections,&dquo;’ I imagine that in one way or another most of them argue for more and better professionals in our prisons. Indeed, it is hard to conccive of anyone being against professionalism per se. It is, of course, precisclv this understanding which inspires people in such a wide variety of jobs, crafts, and occupations from

Professional Researchers And Prisoner Subjects: Some Ethical Problems And Practical Solutions:

In the past few years there have been both quite optimistic and quite pessimistic reviews of the success of various treatment methods and their effects on criminal offenders. The rule of thumb covering the inclination of these reviews is that the earlier they were published the more likely they are to be negative. Bailey, for example, in an early review of one hundred studies concluded that ‘’evideuce supporting the efficacy of correctional treatment is slight, inconsistent, and of questionable reliability&dquo;. ( 1966: 157) Robison and Smith similarly conclude that ‘‘there is no evidence to support any program’s claim of superior rehabilitative efficacy.&dquo; 11971: 80). On the other hand, more recent studies by Adams (1974), Speer (1972) and Berkowitz (1973) suggest that a far more optimistic stance is warrented.

Carl B. Klockars

Papers

A theory of probation supervision.

Professional Researchers And Prisoner Subjects: Some Ethical Problems And Practical Solutions:

The True Limits Of The Effectiveness Of Correctional Treatment

Review Article: The Professional Fence