Special Populations PresentationW4IA

Abstract

In this paper, we will discuss how correctional counseling services for adults and juveniles and differ. From the goals to the motivation and then the actual steps taken to attain and achieve those goals work differently for both the two systems although they both work on the same principle of incarceration. Juvenile correctional policies are a lot lenient for obvious purposes and we will see why and how exactly.

Introduction

The primary goal with correctional counseling is to intervene therapeutically with offenders to make it easier for them to transition back into society by mending their ways. The interventions include pre-release, post-release, vocational, marital and educational adjustments to make an offender more functional. Both adult and juvenile offenders have specific needs that need to be addressed, the juvenile system is supposedly the more lenient and considerate system and we will discuss the motivations behind it being that way.

Discussion

Correctional Counselling for Adults

Many people hold the opinion that the goal of correctional counseling is to reduce recidivism. For the success of correctional counseling means reduced reoffending and failure means client’s recidivism. But correctional counseling and therapy is in fact just one procedure of a series of procedures that form the criminal justice system. It is the responsibility of the entire system working as a whole unit to ensure that an offender does not re-offend a crime and that they are dealt away accordingly. The actual aim of correctional counseling is to help offenders understand and overcome conflicts inside of themselves, to overcome their shortcomings, to develop more accurate social cognitions and to understand themselves and the people around them in a better way. (Schrink & Hamm, 1989; Sun, 2005). The question that arises now is what makes all of this quantifiable, how do you measure success and progress? Since the focus of correctional counseling is to help clients deal with their issues, that’s exactly how it should be measured. There should be a set of goals decided by the case manager and client, and those should be used to benchmark the offender’s progress and status with rehabilitation therapies. Setting goals that are realistic, and obtainable involves identifying what the client would like to accomplish, the goals are never really fixed and can be altered as new insights are identified. The risk and needs assessment instrument is a great way to measure that if the specific needs of a client are addressed, it will reduce the like hood of them repeating the offense they were convicted for. The assessment instrument is made up of a detailed questionnaire, which is used to interview an offender to collect data on their behaviors and attitudes that might become a reason for recidivism. When it comes to adults the goals are to fix and improve health, emotional stability, education, vocational skills, substance abuse, and mental ability.

Correctional Counselling for Juveniles

Juvenile Correction is the more lenient system, for those offenders who have not come of age and are under 18. One of the similarities between the two systems is that both use incarceration as punishment for offenders, however with juveniles, the major difference is rehabilitation which is a key concept and one that is often adopted before any other form of correction. There are more incentive programs for young offenders, some of these services not even applicable to adult offenders, which focuses more on punishment and less on correction. This is because of two phenomena:

· Desistance:

Researchers have found that youth who commit offenses are unlikely to repeat that offense at a later age, the behavior desists as they approach adulthood, only 8-10% of youth have been found to continue this behavior with age. Youth who commit one or more delinquent acts by no means is going to repeat that behavior later on or make it a habit, hence labeling them as chronic offenders or punishing them severely to reduce the chance of them repeating the offense is not logical.

• Age Relativity

Another concept that is important is the behavioral symptoms we experience at one age may not be carried to another age. In simple terms what may be abnormal at one age may not be abnormal at another stage, for example, smoking at age of 11 is delinquent behavior but smoking at age of 16 is normal and comes with experimental nature of late teens. Factors may be considered risk at one age but not another, thus treatment needs to be in a way that's corrective and punishment.

The traditional Juvenile program used to be deficit based, policies and programs were designed to identify the problems in youth and implement strategies to reduce those problems, the offenders were classified by the seriousness of those problems, the level of risk they presented to the public and their service needs. Treatments used to reduce the effects of their problems included: cognitive therapies, behavior modification, and interventions that addressed substance abuse, sexual offending, family conflict, and school failure. These were traditionally the goals towards Juvenile correction, on basis of which the case managers used to base their entire treatment and campaigns (M. Vincent, S. Guy, and Grisso, 2012).

However recently, practitioners have questioned the effectiveness of these methods and the deficit-based model has been under consideration, new perspectives are being adopted and recommendations are being made to revive the juvenile correction process. The emerging shift focuses on making use of data and research to make decisions when it comes to justice for youth, in a manner that favors both the youth and public safety. Evidence-based practices are now recommended, approaches that have the evidence of being successfully in similar situations are now recommended. This promotes fundamental fairness, youth potential, safety, and responsibility.

Finally, for youth, it is recommended that decisions about the case be made on basis of professional judgments and not just scores derived from any kind of assessments. Although it sounds logical to base the decision on risk and needs, for youth it is not just ideal and the decision should involve ethical and humanitarian factors and should be service availability and cost friendly so that it's accessible to all.

Conclusion

Releasing back an offender into a society is risky business and proper identification of goals is important to ensure they are fully corrected before reintegrating with the society. For adults, it's important proper assessment techniques are used to devise goals, which should be strictly monitored for progress, for Juveniles a more lenient compassionate approach should be taken because age mends and strict punishment may just stunt character growth. Correction is important for all and everybody deserves it in a way that puts no harm to society, institution and the offender themselves.

REFERENCES

· M. Vincent, G., S. Guy, L. and Grisso, T. (2012). Risk Assessment in Juvenile Justice: A Guidebook for Implementation.

· Sun, K. (2005, May). Anxiety reduction, interaction schemas, and negative cognitions about the self.Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Society, Los Angeles, CA.

· Yourceus.com. (2018). CFN9885 - SECTION 8: COUNSELING AND TREATMENT GOALS. [online] Available at: https://www.yourceus.com/pages/cfn8685-section-viii-counseling-and-treatment-goals [Accessed 10 Nov. 2018].