Anti-Social Peers                             

Author: Carey Group/Johncox

Motivating offenders to give up their anti-social friends is very difficult. Anti-Social Peers provide corrections professionals with activities to help clients develop the self-awareness and understanding offenders need to give up their anti-social friends. This Guide starts clients on this journey.

ISBN: 978-1-934836-03-3

Anti-Social Peers: 15-Minute Tools

15-minute Tools in this guide are: “Concentric Circles” and “Side by Side."

• “Concentric Circles” assists the corrections professional to work with offenders who are not thinking about changing their anti-social friends and who might resist this suggestion. The exercise is done over two or more short sessions to give them time to think about their responses in previous sessions.
• “Side by Side” should be used when offenders are willing to think about leaving their anti-social friends, either because they are already open to this idea or because of using the Concentric Circle Tool.

In combination, the two 15-Minute Tools turn simple and easy two EBP strategies into activities that give the client tools to move towards being a law-abiding citizen.

Anti-Social Thinking                                  

Author: Jane Johncox

Assisting clients in examining their anti-social thinking and values is a difficult task because these are abstract concepts. In general high-risk clients tend to be very concrete thinkers. Anti-Social Thinking provides a basic understanding of the topic and specific strategies and 15 Minute Tools for the Corrections Professionals:

• To help assess their clients’ anti-social thinking and core values/beliefs
• That provide a framework for clients to increase their awareness of their thinking patterns
• To aid clients to see how anti-social thinking and core values/beliefs impact their behavior

Anti-Social Thinking provides practical activities that help clients understand these complex ideas.

ISBN: 978-1-934836-04-0

Anti-Social Thinking: 15-Minute Tools

15-minute Tools in this guide are: “Thinking Model!”, “How do you Think?”, “What do you Think?” and “Considering What you Think?".

• “Thinking Model” introduces to the client to how thinking leads to feelings and they both lead to behavior. 
• “How do you Think?” assists the corrections professional in identifying anti-social thinking patterns that are common among high risk clients.
• “What do you Think?” outlines beliefs and values that can either support functional behavior or challenge dysfunctional behavior. 
• “Considering What you Think?” helps client examine their criminal or problematic behaviors by building on the previous activities.

The 15-Minute Tools work towards developing client’s awareness of the link between anti-social thinking/values and criminal behaviors.

Co-Occurring Illness                          

Author: Malinda Lamb, Ph.D.

Clients with mental health disorders and clients with substance abuse disorders are difficult for correctional professionals to work with.  It is made even more difficult when clients have both mental health and substance abuse disorders (co-occurring disorders). Co-Occurring Illness provides simple tools to enhance the corrections professional’s ability to interact, develop and refine a plan of action that can be utilized during meetings. The tools help the corrections professional collect accurate and up to date information and identify methods to increase the ability of the client to successfully complete their involvement with the criminal justice system.

ISBN: 978-1-934836-05-7

Co-Occurring Illness: 15-Minute Tools

Two 15-Minute Tools, with a variety of activities, help the corrections professional work with clients to develop a six step action plan:

• Gather accurate and up-to-date core information about the client
• Identify the characteristics that are associated with the client’s mental health and substance use
• Develop an understanding of how these two disorders interact with each other
• Gain an understanding of the client’s enjoyable activities and skills
• Pinpoint community positive resources the client is or can access
• Create a current plan of action

Therapeutic support related to the disorders is determined by the appropriate professionals.  The guide helps the corrections professional work with the client to successfully complete their involvement with the criminal justice system.

Impaired Driving                                           

Author: Marilyn Stein

Most DUI/DWI Offenders have driven after using substances numerous times without “being caught.” Often the combined behaviors of driving and using substances is deeply embedded in the offender’s life to the point that is has become normalized. Impaired Driving provides the corrections professional with an EBP activity to encourage the offender to examine their patterns of behavior that lead to driving under the influence of substances.

ISBN: 978-1-934836-06-4

Impaired Driving: 15-Minute Tools

 “5W’s” provides the Corrections Professional a 15-Minute Tool to:

• help the offender examine their patterns of behavior that lead to driving under the influence of substances.
• track when, where and who he uses substances with so that he can identify areas to make changes
• encourage the offender to close the gap between his beliefs and behaviors.

With awareness they can determine the changes they are willing to implement. Imbedded into the 15-Minute Tool are opportunities for discussions about safety and how driving under the influence compromises the safety of others.

Empathy                                                        

Author: Michael Bacula

Empathy is based on an inverse relationship between empathy and anti-social behavior – as empathy increases, anti-social behavior decreases. Learning to understand and appreciate the feelings of others can offset self-centered thinking that supports tendencies to blame the victim, deny responsibility, and underestimate the effects of criminal behavior. Empathy gives the corrections professional strategies and practical activities to help an offender increase his or her degree of empathy on a cognitive and emotional level and thus move towards becoming contributing citizens.

ISBN: 978-1-934836-07-1

Empathy: 15-Minute Tools

15-minute Tools in this guide are: “In Their Shoes,” “What’s the Problem” and “Try it On."

• “In Their Shoes” provides basic prompters to help the Corrections Professional obtain a sense of whether working on empathy should be a priority with the offender.
• “What’s the Problem” helps the offender recognize how his or her criminal behavior affected others by having the offender consider both their and the victims thoughts and feelings about the crime and its impact.
• “Try it On” takes the themes from the previous 15-Minute Tool and uses role playing to help the offender learn to see things from different perspectives.  The activity helps the offender examine his or her thinking and feelings and appreciate the victim’s point of view. 

The 15-Minute Tools provide simple and easy-to-use activities to evaluate and support empathetic behavior.