NCJ Number
141223
Date Published
1993
Length
87 pages
Annotation
Using volunteers can increase the effectiveness of nearly all prison and jail programs aiming to rehabilitate offenders. This handbook is designed to help volunteers become team workers in their correctional endeavors.
Abstract
The first chapter presents an overview of prison and jail volunteers, discussing early attempts to control crime, the evolution of criminal justice and the evolution of prisons and jails, and today's criminal justice system and the volunteer's role in it. The chapter also covers the State and Federal prison systems, names and titles, classification, and security issues. The second chapter explores the criminal personality, focusing on the typical offender's narcissism, need for power and control, lying, antisocial behavior, low frustration tolerance, distorted ideas about love, violence and anger, and lack of remorse or empathy. The handbook outlines the reasons why volunteers are needed in prisons and jails, discussing life in prison and the inmates' culture, religious life, and internal code of behavior. To work effectively with inmates, volunteers must be able to deal with self-centered inmates and their external locus of control, overcome resistance, use education to produce change, help inmates with their religious beliefs, and help them to heal themselves. The final chapter deals with common problems encountered by volunteers including errors in judgment, prison disturbances, and burnout.