The Needs of Prison Inmates Serving a Life Sentence Research Paper

Introduction

The current treatment group proposal addresses the needs of prison inmates serving a life sentence without parole or the ability to give consent. The purpose of the treatment group is determined by the reason for the chosen population’s vulnerability and their conditions of life. The lifers’ status of the selected population deprives them of rehabilitation, leaves them with their unresolved psychological problems, which aggravate imposing more adverse issues, including violent behavior, depression, lack of hope, and ultimate issues with health. The current correctional sphere in the USA pays more attention to the inmates who are likely to return to society.

Therefore, the majority of in-prison treatment initiatives are aimed at preparing the inmates for their integration into the society after their release from the correctional institution (Balafoutas, García-Gallego, Georgantzis, Jaber-Lopez, Mitrokostas, 2019). Under such circumstances, the offenders serving life sentences are omitted and left hopeless without any prospects for the future. Consequently, it is important to meet the mental health care needs of this population by creating a treatment group to help inmates acquire new thinking and behavioral patterns.

The proposed therapeutic interventions are developed to help the group develop coping and life skills, manage their aggression, cultivate hope and gratitude as the basis for a healthy psychological environment. The group form of therapy is imperative to be used for the chosen population for several reasons. Firstly, all the members of the group will have the same characteristics related to their lifers’ statuses and criminal experience, which will provide numerous opportunities for the exchange of emotions, learning from others, and adopting a feeling that they are not alone in their problems.

Secondly, the inmates share the same conditions of life and spend most of their time in a group of other offenders. It is only natural to facilitate a group in an environment where the individuals share space and need to learn how to live together. That is why a group approach is the best option for the treatment of prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment.

Body of Group Proposed Design

Group Objectives

In general, the goals of in-prison therapy groups should be flexible and broad enough to meet the needs of the target population. The primary issue that psychotherapeutic interventions need to address is the acceptance of the overall unfavorable prison environment. As claimed by Balafoutas et al. (2019), “prisons promote criminality” and aggressive behavior due to “the psychologically destructive and inhumane conditions” (p. 3). The proposed group will be entitled Lifers Coping Group and will aim at making changes in the members’ thinking and behavior. Thus, the objectives of the group include developing the skills of coping with aggression, cultivating the feeling of gratitude and hope, managing sadness and despair, as well as rethinking the burden of social isolation and a hostile living environment.

Type of Therapy Group

The chosen type of therapy group is life skills or coping group that is aimed at acquiring new behavioral and thinking patterns that apply to the inmates’ everyday life (Zastrow, 2008). According to the identified objectives and taking into account the environment in which the target population is placed, this type of treatment group seems to fit the identified issues best because it provides multiple opportunities to exchange experiences, learn new skills, and reshape antisocial attitudes and hopelessness of lifers.

Some of the limitations of the selected group type are related to the lack of individual communication between a patient and a therapist due to the overall collective work. As for the disadvantages of the life skills group, it does not provide enough opportunity to educate the members about the psychological processes behind their mental state, as it might be possible when using psychoeducation. Also, this type of therapy does not allow for thorough diagnosing and treatment of particular symptoms. However, the strengths of the chosen group type include time-consuming opportunities due to the ability to help many people at once using cooperation.

In addition, the procedures available from the coping group primarily target the skills that are immediately needed for the patients. Thus, the application of such an approach will facilitate the process of treatment and meet the needs of the group members in a timely and effective manner.

Preparation Required for the Group

The anticipated length of treatment is eight weeks, with one session per week. The duration of the meetings will be one hour of group work. The participants will be included on a voluntary basis through means of word-of-mouth and advertising. Since the group will be created in an all-male correctional facility for lifers, all inmates will have an equal opportunity to join the group. The group will be heterogeneous and closed to ensure diversity of exchanged experience and effectiveness of the interventions.

The exclusion from the group will be carried out on the basis of free will. The minimum number of participants is five individuals, which is determined by the overall cost-effectiveness of the project. The maximum number of group members is twelve, which is imposed by the anticipated capability of a therapist to spend enough time with each member. The materials that will need to be prepared for the group sessions include questionnaires, activity worksheets, discussion topics, plans of sessions, and assessment tools.

Group Procedures

The group will be approached by utilizing cognitive-behavioral theory. As research demonstrates, the majority of treatment plans for inmates show effectiveness when applied with cognitive-behavioral theory due to the specifics of criminal thinking styles and the ways they alter. This approach is the best fit for the coping group since it provides multiple opportunities to shift thinking and behavioral patterns by introducing new ones. In such a manner, the cognitive-behavioral procedures will help manage the psychological issues of “dysfunctional social information processing” (Brazao, Rijo, do Céu Salvador, & Pinto-Gouveia, 2017, p. 1065).

Since the group therapy will consist of eight weekly sessions, the activities and exercises will be planned accordingly.

1. Questionnaires, orientation procedures, self-assessment on the aggression scale (Ayub, Nasir, Kadir, & Mohamad, 2016).
2. Introduction of the importance of keeping a journal of emotional state for the inmates and the discussion of its benefits.
3. Adaptive exercises and discussion in the group to minimize stress and facilitate the members’ integration into the group environment. Since there might be difficulties in some members’ acceptance of therapy in the group at the storming stage of group development, it is essential to address the issues explicitly (Zastrow, 2008). Moreover, the treatment group is created for violent offenders who have difficulties in socialization in the prison environment. The issue of the adaptation to open communication with a group is even more significant for them.
4. Conflict management practice with the introduction of the importance of gratitude.
5. Group discussion of the meaning of hope for lifers, practice of insight, and the ability to improve relationships with others by means of changing one’s behavior (Clark & Duwe, 2015).
6. Journal discussions within the framework of the origins of anger and despair.
7. The practice of dealing with social isolation and the importance of continuing socializing in the current environment (Legislative Analyst’s Office, 2017).
8. Self-assessment, reflection on the results. The prospects for post-group evaluation of the results.

Practical Considerations

The sessions will be held in the facility in a room with enough space for all the participants. The group entitled Lifers Coping Group will meet once a week on Fridays at 6 p.m. For advertising, the poster will be created to be placed on the announcement board, where all the inmates will be able to see it. Also, flyers will be spread among individuals to attract volunteers and promote the treatment group. A flyer invitation might contain the following information. Lifers Coping Group Sessions. Learn to live with hope and gratitude. Every Friday, 6 – 7 p.m. Professional therapy sessions with group discussions. Such material will be included in the flyers and posters to demonstrate the objectives of the group.

Critique and Summary

The selected treatment group type aims at changing thinking and behavioral patterns by developing the life skills for coping with the burden of social isolation of lifers within the cognitive-behavioral theory. This approach provides opportunities to manage aggressive behavior as a protective tool of a hopeless individual. It also has time-consuming benefits and cost-effective advantages since the group might include up to twelve participants, who will receive professional help simultaneously. However, there might be some limitations related to the difficulties of the inclusion of reluctant members into group discussions that might undermine the overall purpose of the therapy.

For the evaluation of the results of group sessions, a self-assessment checklist will be given at the beginning of the first session and the end of the last meeting. The comparison of the two questionnaires will demonstrate the shifts in inmates’ perception of their psychological issues (Clark & Duwe, 2015). Also, the participants will be encouraged to keep journals after the group is over. At the stage of post-treatment evaluation (in two months’ time after the end of the sessions), another questionnaire will be introduced to the group members to clarify if they keep the journal and if they use the acquired skills in everyday life.

Some of the anticipated barriers to treatment group creation and intervention implementation might be connected with the lack of agency support. In such a case, a group leader should make a presentation of evidence showing the importance of therapy for lifers and the benefits it might bring to the in-prison management of aggressive behavior. Another obstacle might be determined by the lack of the therapist’s experience of work with vulnerable populations, especially offenders sentenced for violent crimes.

It will be necessary to research the particularities of work with the identified population to facilitate the positive implications of the proposed interventions in the most effective way. To make this group happen, one should address and resolve all the issues related to the identified barriers, negotiate the terms of cooperation with the prison administration, prepare all necessary materials, and attract a sufficient number of participants.

In conclusion, I think that the work with this group will be challenging due to the limited work experience in group sessions. Since the group will be heterogeneous, my age and race might be of concern to the diverse members of the group; culture-sensitive methods might be required to resolve such issues. Moreover, the particularities of the behavioral and thinking patterns of individuals sentenced to life imprisonment might impose an additional emotional burden and more extensive methods of conflict management on different stages of group development. Therefore, I will need to research the most effective ways of dealing with the group to ensure the positive results of the sessions.

References

Ayub, N., Nasir, R., Kadir, N. B. A., & Mohamad, M. S. (2016). Cognitive behavioural group counselling in reducing anger and aggression among male prison inmates in Malaysia. Asian Social Science, 12(1),263-273.

Balafoutas, L., García-Gallego, A., Georgantzis, N., Jaber-Lopez, T., Mitrokostas, E. (2019). Rehabilitation and social behavior: Experiments in prison. Games and Economic Behavior. Web.

Brazao, N., Rijo, D., do Céu Salvador, M., & Pinto-Gouveia, J. (2017). The effects of the Growing Pro-Social program on cognitive distortions and early maladaptive schemas over time in male prison inmates: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 85(11), 1064-1079.

Clark, V. A., & Duwe, G. (2015). An outcome evaluation of a prison-based life-skills program: The power of people. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 59(4), 384-405

Legislative Analyst’s Office. (2017). Improving in-prison rehabilitation programs. Web.

Zastrow, C. (2008). Social work with groups: A comprehensive workbook (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.