NCJ Number
97391
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology Volume: 26 Issue: 4 Dated: (October 1984) Pages: 439-457
Date Published
1984
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This paper describes a group program for long-term inmates ('LifeServers') at Warkworth Institution in Ontario.
Abstract
Thirty-one long-term inmates were involved in the program initially and are the primary subject of this report. The group is organized much like a community service club. Over the years, the group has developed a sophisticated view of the emotional pressures and changes experienced by long-term inmates. The group communicates these insights and coping strategies to prison staff and suggests program implications. The group helped case management officers to inmates as having program needs throughout their sentences. The group and the staff began time-framing sentences to help inmates develop goals for their lives while in prison, encouraging purposefulness and hope. A number of LifeServers have developed useful and rewarding prison careers, having worked as peer counselors, psychotechnicians, program coordinators, and tutors. This program-oriented incarceration is apparently more beneficial to young inmates than traditional penitentiary experience. Separate living units and a normalized prison environment appear to benefit long-term inmates. Techniques developed in this program should be further developed and implemented more widely. Two tables and a list of 23 references are supplied.