NCJ Number
167796
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 58 Issue: 5 Dated: (August 1996) Pages: 114,116-117,143
Date Published
1996
Length
4 pages
Annotation
The Delaware Life Skills program, which serves adult offenders in the four major prisons throughout the State, combines instruction in applied skills training basic academics, violence reduction, and the acquisition of moral values and life skills needed for positive reintegration into society.
Abstract
Inmates with 6 to 22 months remaining on their sentences are informed about the program and invited to apply. The program operates for 3 hours a day and continues for 4 months. Teachers conduct a morning and afternoon class of 12-15 students; the program's total capacity is 150 students. Teachers involve the family in the program, contacting a family member named by the inmate and informing him or her about the program and the inmate's progress. The power of the program lies in its capacity to hire and train correctional educators who are motivated to help the inmate students succeed. The primary goal of the program is for participants to have a measurable and significantly lower recidivism rate than those in the control and comparison group 1 year after release from prison. Recidivism is defined as incurring pending misdemeanor or felony charges or convictions. One-year recidivism results for more than half of the first Life Skills class show an 8.1-percent rate, compared with 34.9 percent for the composite comparison group. Also, after completing the program, students showed significant decreases in feelings and likelihood of expression of anger as measured by the State Trait Anger Expression Inventory.