NCJ Number
188008
Date Published
2000
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This paper reports on evaluations of British intensive regimes for young offenders at Thorn Cross Young Offender Institution in July 1996 and at Colchester Military Corrective Training Centre in February 1997.
Abstract
The evaluations tested the impact of demanding, highly structured regimes on attitudes, behavior, and recidivism. Findings show that 1 year after discharge, the Thorn Cross experimental group had a significant drop of approximately 10 percent in reconviction rates compared with those in the control group who showed little change. There was no statistically significant difference between the reconviction rates of the two Colchester groups, but given the small number involved, it is difficult to draw conclusions from this. There was little difference between Thorn Cross, Colchester, and control group offenders in terms of their "before and after" performance on a variety of psychological tests; however, the Colchester group had significantly more positive attitudes toward staff and other inmates at the end of sentence and were significantly more hopeful about the future than the control group. A number of small follow-up studies provided some evidence that the Colchester regime was successful in giving offenders a degree of self-confidence. This, in turn, seems to have given them a slight edge over the control group when it came to finding employment and with postrelease experiences in general. The success of the Thorn Cross regime in reducing reconvictions was probably due to its offending-behavior, education, mentoring, and aftercare components, rather than to its drilling and physical training components. The Colchester regime, which emphasized physical activities, was not successful in reducing reconvictions. 2 tables