Group treatment program for sexually and physically assaultive young offenders in a secure custody facility.

Abstract

AbstractThis paper describes a treatment program which provides group therapy to young male offenders convicted of sexual and physical assault. The traditional difficulty of providing group therapy to male adolescent sex offenders housed with non - sex offenders in secure custody facilities led to development of the program. In the group treatment therapy program, young offenders convicted of physical and sexual assaults may participate in a common group where they acquire awareness of maladaptive behaviours (i.e., inappropriate modes of relating to both women and men), empathy with victims, awareness of high risk situations, and enhancement of prosocial behaviours. The group treatment program is semi - structured and is based on cognitive, behavioural and social learning principles.In recent years, the public has become increasingly concerned about the number and nature of physical or sexual assaults committed by adolescent males. Many of the young offenders who commit the assaults end up in secure custody facilities. Both the courts and public expect these young people to be rehabilitated during the period of their confinement, based on the notion that the adolescents' attitudes and behaviours are still amenable to change (Arnold and McDonald, 1994).The challenge for staff of these secure custody facilities is to develop effective rehabilitation and treatment programs for incarcerated young offenders. Group therapy is becoming a popular treatment modality. The successful implementation of group therapy in secure custody facilities depends on the nature of the facility, and the make - up and characteristics of the population group (Miscevich, 1985).In a secure custody facility with a mixed offender population (offenders charged with various offences), the success of group therapy depends on institutional treatment philosophy, staff's view of residents, staff - resident ratio, level of supervision, staff - resident relations, staff's view of various charges and the physical structure of the facility. Group therapy is more difficult to apply in an institution where sex offenders are integrated with other types of young offenders. In these situations the inherent resident subculture fosters a hierarchical social system based on the type of crime committed (Miscevich, 1985). Sex offenders generally occupy the lower levels of the system and are subject to victimization from the other residents (Griffiths, Klein, and Verdun - Jones, 1980). Many of them are despised and are a target of assault (Brady, 1993). Sex offenders who attend a specific treatment group reveal their charges to the whole facility, making them reluctant to participate for legitimate fear of being attacked or of losing their social position within the resident hierarchy. Programs for sex offenders are easier to run in a facility housing only sex offenders, but such a facility does not exist in Ontario. Protective custody for young offenders within the facility is against current Ministry policy. Nonetheless, group therapy remains an important part of a comprehensive treatment approach for young sex offenders in secure custody facilities (Bengis, 1986; Coleman, 1988). Group therapy approaches must offer young sex offenders the opportunity to participate without the risk of victimization by other young offenders (Mamabolo and Papastergiou, 1991).This paper describes a group treatment program, the Human Relations therapy group, which extends group therapy to young sex offenders at Sprucedale Youth Centre. This facility is a ninety bed all male secure custody facility which is run by the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General and Correctional Services. The residents, whose average age is 17 3/4 years, serve a fourteen month sentence on average. The primary goal of the Centre is to meet the individual needs of residents and to foster their individual development by providing high quality residential care and treatment, and treating the young offenders with respect and dignity. …