Transformative Interventions: Studying Participant Perceptions of the Significance of Various Correctional Rehabilitation Program Elements
Date
2000-12
Authors
Miller, Ed
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Abstract
This qualitative phenomenological study inquired into the experiences and perceptions of 8 successful graduates of the Convicted Offender Re-Entry Effort (CORE) boot camp and Construction Gateway rehabilitative program sequence in Austin, Texas. CORE boot camp provides military discipline and life skills training for first time felons. Gateway is a vocational training program providing further life skills training, vocational training, and job placement. The research questions focused on participant perceptions of which program elements were most salient in aiding successful reintegration into society.
Elements seen as having the greatest significance include personal matters (a child, a steady job, good income, and returning to school), life skills (learning to learn, learning to take orders, and learning to get along), elements more closely related to CORE (exercise, discipline, and not wanting to recidivate), and elements more closely related to Gateway (developing a sense of accomplishment and greater self-esteem, and acquiring a good job). Many reported important rehabilitational benefits accrued for them merely because of their participation in the combined CORE/Gateway program.
This study supports the findings of prior researchers that ex-offenders who do not recidivate tend to be those who have developed a working self-regulatory system that is based on self-monitoring and self-control.
Description
Keywords
juvenile delinquents, rehabilitation, prevention, juvenile corrections, criminals, shock incarceration, alternatives to imprisonment
Citation
Miller, E. (2000). Transformative interventions: Studying participant perceptions of the significance of various correctional rehabilitation program elements (Unpublished thesis). Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.