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Getting the context right: rehabilitative culture in prison for men convicted of sexual offending. Dr Nicholas Blagden CPsychol nicholas.blagden@ntu.ac.uk @ drnblagden. Ralph Lubkowski Governor of HMP Stafford. Context.
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Getting the context right: rehabilitative culture in prison for men convicted of sexual offending Dr Nicholas Blagden CPsychol nicholas.blagden@ntu.ac.uk @drnblagden Ralph Lubkowski Governor of HMP Stafford
Context • The use of rehabilitative interventions for criminal offenders has expanded over the decades and with it so has evidence of their effectiveness in reducing recidivism (Lipton et al, 2002). • For example research has demonstrated what e.g. programmes for men with sexual convictions should focus on and that treatment completion can reduce the number of sex offenders that are reconvicted (Hanson et al, 2002; Losel and Schmucker, 2005; Hanson et al, 2009). • While there is significant body of evidence for the effectiveness of behavioural programmes in reducing recidivism, the broader environment where the treatment takes place has received much less attention (Ware, Frost and Hoy, 2010). • “the context in which treatment is provided may actually prove to be quite important to the overall effectiveness of treatment (Ware, 2011: 30).
Context • There are growing concerns that rehabilitative programmes and practice are being compromised by ineffective correctional environments. • Things that appear to effect correctional environments include, quality of staff-prisoner relationships, organisational culture, degree to which therapeutic integrity is maintained (Day et al, 2011; Goggin and Gendreau, 2006; Stohr et al, 2012). • It has been argued that the therapeutic and rehabilitative climate of a correctional institution could be vital for offender reform (see e.g Day et al, 2011; Schalast et al, 2008). • External responsivity is focused on the setting of treatment (e.g. environment where therapy is delivered) and staff characteristics.
Rehabilitative Climate • The rehabilitative climate is the ways in which the correctional climate fosters and promotes positive personal change and ultimately how conducive it is to reducing reoffending. • While it focuses on key components of social climate (e.g. growth, support, atmosphere) and moral climate (human decency, fairness and staff-prisoner interactions). • It also has an emphasis on attitudes towards offending, beliefs about change, readiness to change, promotion of change and relationships that foster change. • Rehabilitative climate as a responsivity factor (see Birgden, 2004)
Prison and desistance • Importance of relational dynamics (see e.g. Weaver, 2011) and social capital (Farrall, 2004; Farmer, 2012). • Paradox of prison as an agent of rehabilitation and reintegration (Gideon, 2011). • Prison has the potential to support offenders on the path towards desistance (O’Donahue, 2011). • Potential importance of prison climate - Prisoner-staff relationships (and perceived staff support) important for prisoner wellbeing, adjustment and order in prison (Dirkzwager and Krutschnitt, 2012). • Safer Living Foundation
HOW DOES PRISON CLIMATE POSITIVELY IMPACT TREATMENT EFFECTIVENESS? • Before Treatment • Volunteering for treatment – climate supportive of therapy (though can work the other way). • Prisons identified as having a negative prison climate have been shown to negatively affect treatment readiness (e.g., Schalast, Redies, Collns, Stacey, & Howells, 2008; Blagden et al, 2012). • To ensure a positive prison climate supportive of rehabilitation before treatment it is important to focus on the engagement and education of non-treatment staff (also attitudes) (Ware & Galouzis, 2019).
HOW DOES PRISON CLIMATE POSITIVELY IMPACT TREATMENT EFFECTIVENESS? • During Treatment and After • Frost, Ware, and Boer (2017) have also suggested that there are two necessary conditions in providing a positive prison climate during treatment to allow for content rehearsal and practice • There must be a “safe” and containing environment that is conducive to openness, directness and honesty • It must create structured opportunities to develop attitudes and learn skills as an expedient forum for addressing interpersonal relationships
A Rehabilitative Culture is the ideal prison climate for rehabilitative activities and programmes to flourish and have maximum benefit. A Rehabilitative Culture also enables identity change in itsown right. A Rehabilitative Culture makes a prison safer as well as reducing reoffending.
Active Citizenship and Rehabilitative Culture at HMP Stafford Ralph Lubkowski Governor of HMP Stafford
What is Active Citizenship? “Doing good for your community, your environment, and other people” The Community: Residents Council, Food Committee, Creative Arts, Diversity Events, Interest Groups eg Veterans. The Environment: Gardeners, Cleaners, Small Jobs Party, Painting Party Other People: Peer Mentors, Listeners, Carers, OLIPS, Healthcare Champions, Information Desk Ambassadors. BUT: It’s also about the small things…….
Keep it Simple: Positively Acknowledging Contributions • Recognise: The contribution people make to the community, environment, and others • Reinforce: Positively acknowledge the contributions that people make to the community, the environment, and other individuals. • Record: Formally noting contribution, success and achievement.
So where does this lead? • A safe environment: HMP Stafford is one of the safest prisons in the country • A sense of purpose: Residents feel like they are contributing. • Empowerment: Residents take responsibility. • Wellbeing: Feelings of self worth and value increase. The impact of an active citizen badge is extraordinary! Replaces the label of sex offender with something positive. • Community: Residents look for ways to positively contribute, which builds a sense of community and pride. • Contributors, not consumers: Our residents become part of the solution to making things better for everyone, and our staff respond to that. A change in climate occurs, that creates new opportunities and breaks down barriers as a sense of progress and positivity builds…
Resident Led Workshops Art, song writing and drama workshops led by residents as part of a series of “pop ups” and a two week long festival in partnership with the community and arts sector.
Rideout The Rideout Theatre company have held two workshops. Drama performance on history of prison food and a dance performance on hard labour in prisons. Rideout will be returning later in the year for a puppetry and a choral performance.
Other Activities Our Residents Council agreed to use their budget to fund our Visits Centre Refurbishment, buy fish tanks for wings, and provide funds for our Senor Support Group to buy craft supplies as well as paying for beekeeping equipment. In March 2019, the residents held a fundraiser in the gym raising a total of £785.73 for The Samaritans. This was just from resident donations. Similarly resident raised over £1000 for the Poppy appeal Last year our Charity Shop raised over £14000 for Kathryn’s House Hospice. Residents now volunteer to play music at our family visits days, This year we are having two bee hives in our G Wing gardens. Residents will be trained in bee keeping. We also hope to welcome chickens!
Celebration Awards In December, the residents were recognised in partnership with Milton Keynes College for their academic and active citizenship achievements throughout the year. Over 100 residents received recognition for citizenship.
The Big Picture Our Vision: “Returning citizens, not offenders, to our communities” This is about much more than reducing reoffending, it is about creating feelings of value and self worth in our residents, creating a sense of purpose and wellbeing that will enable them to not just stop offending, but to positively contribute to the community outside, having benefitted from doing so on the inside. This is how we should measure success, and is at the core of everything we are doing at HMP Stafford.
Rehabilitative Climate Research • Prisons • Rehab Prison – Cat C trainer – specialist sex offender site treatment focused • Re-rolled Prison – Cat B trainer – now specialist sex offender site • SO Prison – Cat C – specialist prison not treatment focused • Quantitative Phase • Rehab Prison Prisoners (n = 112) Prison Staff (n= 48) • The mean age for prisoners was 48.87 (SD = 14.15, range = 23-80) and the mean age for prison staff was 39.77 (SD = 12.02, range = 24-58). • Re-Roll Prison Prisoners (n= 111) Prison Staff (n=31) • The mean age for prisoners was 43.40 (SD = 15.16, range = 22-79) and the mean age for prison staff was 34.81 (SD= 11.11, range = 22-60). • Prison with AC focus Prisoners (n=89) The mean age for prisoners was 47.77 (SD = 15.16) Qualitative Phase • Total of n=15 prisoner interviews and n= 16 staff interviews at rehab prison • Total of n=15 prisoner interviews and n= 16 staff interviews at re-roll prison • Total of n=15 prisoner interviews and n= 16 staff interviews at Prison with AC focus
Measures • EssenCES – Therapeutic Hold, Prisoner Cohesion, Experienced Safety (Schalast, 2008) • Rehabilitative Climate Questionnaire (RCQ) (NOMS, 2014) • Attitude Towards Sex Offenders Scale (ATS) (Hogue, 1993) • ITOB (self and other) (modified from Dweck, 2000; Gerber and O’Connell, 2010) • Corrections Victoria Treatment Readiness Scale (Casey et al, 2007) • Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS)
Differences in Prison Climate for men with sexual convictions
Experiencing a different world SO Prison– Prisoner Participant “Yes from the moment you walk in you’re treated as a person not as a prisoner and that I would say is to do with the active citizenship” SO Prison– Prisoner Participant “It’s really strange how you can have a joke with senior officers and PO’s, general banter…which Is really strange as I never expected anyone in there to have that relationship with someone from authority. Which is nice because it gives you a sense of normality”
Experiencing a different world • Feeling safe and having anxieties reduced gave participants additional ‘headspace’ to think and reflect upon the self in transition (self in relation to past and future selves) and the changes they want to make. • Headspace in prison can allow offenders to reflect and discover that change is possible and desirable (Blagden et al, 2016, Crewe, 2011). Most participants discussed feeling ‘at ease’ in the prison and that the environment allowed for personal change. • This links with findings from previous research that highlights the importance of the prison environment for sexual offenders (Ware et al. 2010; Schwaebe 2005). • The environments in each prison appeared to be somewhat conducive to facilitating personal change.
Relational Ambivalence Re-roll prison staff I’m much more guarded than I used to be, when it was a mains I talk more to the prisoners and tell them more about me, I don’t do that know, I don’t share anything personal. You don’t know how they will use it. Re-roll prison staff “If knew if the person in front of me had raped 10 kids I’m gonna have a different attitude towards him and I can’t, so I don’t check their records, I just make sure the one’s that are dangerous are on my radar”
Relational Ambivalence • There was some divergence between the prisons in terms of how relationships between prisoners and staff were construed. This was particularly the case in the re-roll prison. • There was an relational ambivalence in terms of how some prisoners experienced prisoner-staff relationships and equally a guardedness which stemmed from the prisoners being sexual offenders. This can impact on treatment gains (Lea et al, 1999) • This manifested itself with prison staff disclosing less personal information or not having the same relationships as previously with ‘mains’ prisoners. This was being experienced by some prisoners as inauthentic or ‘putting on a show’.
Meaningful Encounters Reroll Prison – Prisoner Participant Then when you came on the wing. Yer they’re all helping ya this that and the other. And then I was sat down at one of the tables, just on me own, and an officer came and sat at the other side of the table and said “how you doing Mr (name removed), everything alright?” And I’s just like blown away, because err you didn’t get that at [xxx], that were no, they’d treat you like shit SO Prison It was a prison officer on my wing and to have that, that was like wow, it was amazing because after that she said ‘you know what, I respect you more’ and having that feedback like I say, I can’t put a price on it.
Meaningful Encounters • Being “blown away” emphasising how qualitatively different this experience was to previous establishments. Emphasising some clear benefits of co-location. • The previous extract highlights the transformative potential interactions can have on prisoners. Highlights the importance of reciprocity in cementing change – There are links here with peer support and active citizenship. Indeed, the reciprocal aspects of the staff-prisoner relationships in this study points to the relational properties in the ‘self-change’ process (Mead, Hilton, & Curtis 2001). • This process of positive feedback and validation is an important aspect of the desistance literature in that high expectations of an individual produce higher outcomes, known as the Pygmalion effect (Maruna et al., 2009; Lebel et al., 2008). • This also links to a recent evaluation of the Five-Minute Intervention where prison staff were trained to interact with prisoners in a manner that targets poor motivation to change and encourage personal responsibility (Tate, Blagden, & Mann, in press).
Importance of meaningful and genuine relationships Relationships matter in complex ways in prison (Liebling, Price and Elliott, 1999) – they mediate “what goes on”, they matter to the ‘feel’ of the prison. Prisoner-staff relationships (and perceived staff support) important for prisoner wellbeing, adjustment and order in prison (Dirkzwager and Krutschnitt, 2012). Therapeutic alliance pivotal for effective treatment e.g. warmth, empathy, respect, rewarding behaviour, genuineness (see e.g. Serran et al, 2003; Ackerman and Hilsenroth, 2003). Relationships and interactions with staff maybe testing grounds for future meaningful relationships (Blagden et al, 2016, 2017.
Importance of Language Use • Terms such as ‘con’, ‘inmates’, ‘prisoners’ etc reinforce criminogenic identities and become self-referent labels (Harris, 2014). • Linked to ‘condemnation scripts’ and Pygmalion effect (see Maruna, 2010, Maruna et al, 2004). • Linked to sitgma, shame and reinforcement of negative identities. • Prisons of purpose “no more victims”, “Returning citizens not offenders to communities”
Active Citizenship Research Study (in prep) …positive impact cause at the end of the day I’m helping someone better themselves as an active citizen and even being an active citizen has bettered me.
Active Citizenship The development of prosocial behaviour in these roles means the helpers may be more likely to find a meaningful prosocial role on release. Engaging in roles characterised by reciprocal helping can lead to opportunities for self-change, which in turn could improve the likelihood of effective rehabilitation (Lebel et al, 2015). Validation important – from staff, prisoners and others. Such relationships are important for verification and validation. The self-change process as change narratives require continuous validation (Vaughan, 2007).
“Do Good Be Good” – intervention principle that fits with the desistance literature on identity
If you’re out through life causing destruction and distress to people and yourself, you quite quickly fill your bank up with negative ways of thinking and negative thoughts... It’s like having a big tub of dirty water, that’s negative. And then someone gives you a positive drip, and eventually, with more drips, the water gets less murky, overflows, and then it’s just nice and clean. That’s what happens basically. learning to accept that positive...the listening scheme was a big big drip (Perrin and Blagden, in 2015)
Drips of change • Self reconstrual – transformation of self and self identity. Development of meaning and purpose in prison. Self transformation as a form of ‘cleansing’. • Highlights how little by little participants had begun to reconstrue and transform their lives. Being involved in good things – allowed for good selves. • This is important as research has shown the portrayal and enacting of ‘good’ and ‘moral’ selves can lead to ‘living’ those roles (see Blagden et al, 2011, 2014; McAdams, 2006). • Allowing for the momentum of change in which the self is construed in a positive light (Gobbels et al, 2012).
I see this as, you know...a stepping stone in my life of how I’ve been in my past, how I am now, and how I want to be in the future...and I’m making the right choices now to make that first stepping stone even easier, and that’s the key thing…It’s given me more positivity in life, more hope, and more realistic goals to reach. And, you know, making that difference inside here, and making a difference when I get out, is gonna be a big thing. And that’s thanks to the support and the mentoring scheme that we have here.
Assisting with change and cultivating hope • Reciprocity – giving help/getting help • Extract portrays hope. Hope is heavily discussed in the desistance literature, and is conceptualised as one of many tools that offenders use to adjust to imprisonment, serve sentences constructively, and work on “going straight” (Dhami, Ayton, & Loewenstein, 2007). • Being a peer-support mentor also seemed to be facilitating the participants construction of a “possible self.” • LeBel et al. (2015) conclude, helping others appears to have adaptive consequences for prisoners and ex-prisoners, and on these grounds, an argument can be made for increasing opportunities to engage in roles characterised by reciprocal helping.
Drawing it all together… • Rehabilitative climate is a responsivity issue that we need to be more responsive to… • Giving people the latitude to develop viable identities is important for the self-change process. Peer support roles, active citizenship and constructive relationships can assist with encouraging this. It is important to note positive behaviour change outside of programmes. • Cultivating, investing in and promoting positive and meaningful relationships is important for desistance no matter what the offender. • Desistance has inherently relational properties – importance of the therapeutic alliance in the self change process, reciprocity and owning your own rehabilitation.
