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Principle 5b: Increase Positive Reinforcement

Think about the last dog you trained. Opting for praise and treats was not a challenge. Everyone knows that positive reinforcement should outweigh punishment when attempting to train a new behavior. Somehow, it seems we forget this lesson when it comes to people.

Perhaps we expect more out of people than dogs. Maybe it is the years of “tough on crime” mentality. Is it possible that we are hard wired to think of punishment before praise? While diligence is required, it is certainly possible to transform an environment focused on punishment to one centered on “catching them being good.”

Offender treatment research indicates that at a minimum, clients should receive at least four positive reinforcements for each punishment. Some family and marital research indicates that this ratio holds true for parenting and spousal relationships.

This is the 8th of a 12 part series on Evidence Based Principles.  Subscribe to our blog and get this series and the upcoming Risk Principle Simplified series delivered right to your inbox.

Principle 5a: Establish Structure and Behavioral Accountability

“I am so relieved to be in jail.” I’ve heard hundreds of offenders start an evaluation with this statement. They desperately wanted to get clean. They were motivated and ready to take change seriously. They just could not stop using long enough to create and execute a plan. Unfortunately, with greater emphasis on offender treatment, some tend to believe that structure and behavioral accountability is at best unnecessary and at worst, punitive. 

Structure includes rules, roles, and expectations. Civilized societies are civil and a society due to structure. Many offenders perform perfectly with structure. There are flawless inmates and likeable community corrections clients. While it may be related to neuropsychological deficits, one thing is clear, most offenders need structure. They crave structure but hate it. They know they need it, but resent it. (This is true for me too).

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Principle 4: Skill Train with Directed Practice

Ever wondered why you continue with bad habits even when they serve no purpose other than to create pain? Human nature is frustrating. Sometimes it seems like we are just one big compilation of habits, good and bad. That is partly true.

Most correctional professionals agree that behavioral change starts with acquiring new skills, however we often do a particularly poor job implementing this principle. It is not for a lack of trying. Without a solid foundation in the neuropsychology of habits and behavior change, we typically start with a false assumption. That assumption is that a lack of information is central to the behavior problem. When your assumption of the problem misses the mark, your intervention will too.

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Principle 3b: Collaborate on a Treatment Plan

Consider what it is like to be an offender who has been in multiple incarceration and treatment environments. In most cases, the intake process starts with a barrage of questions and then someone tells you what your problems are, what treatment is required and the total of the monthly fees required to keep you out of jail. The entire first few days is largely out of your control and your opinion is rarely asked, much less actually valued. Worse, it feels like your identity is summarized as a set of problems. That is the way you’ve felt for a long time, but it is disconcerting for a professional to reinforce the idea.

Conversely, imagine expecting the above experience and instead being pleasantly surprised when the treatment plan process begins with, “Let’s begin with what you value most; what is most important to you.” This process changes the entire interaction, the attitude and even the environment immediately, doesn’t it? Instead of beginning a “treatment plan” that is based on a history of failure and critically poor choices, you get defined by what is important to you and who you want to become. You get defined by potential rather than problems. Feeling more motivated already? That is the idea.

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Principle 3a: Target Interventions 

In the progression of "ready", "aim", "fire", the relationship, assessment, and motivation collectively provide the "ready". Focusing the "aim" is the next step. The assessment results, formal and informal, provide the foundation, but putting all the ingredients together can be a challenge. With a collaborative relationship and sufficient motivation, deciding what to target may involve some negotiation, but that is a logical and reasonable part of the process. While public safety must come first, even the most resistant clients goals and values should be reflected in the game plan to some extent.

The most important concept is that the assessment is not just a set of documents to check off and file away. Developing the plan is part art and part science.