Approaches to Successfully Delivering Rehabilitative Services in Prison: Perspectives from Non-Uniform Correctional Staff in Eight States

• Published date: 01 March 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00328855231222410
• Author: Susan Dewey,Brittany VandeBerg,Susan Roberts
• Date: 01 March 2024

Approaches to

Successfully Delivering

Rehabilitative Services in

Prison: Perspectives

from Non-Uniform

Correctional Staff in

Eight States

Susan Dewey

1

, Brittany VandeBerg

1

,

and Susan Roberts

2

Abstract

Non-uniform staff help create prison social climate by providing services

that include educational and vocational classes, mental health counseling,

employment and reentry preparedness, and family-strengthening activities.

The present study examines how non-uniform corr ectional staff perceive

their association with successful delivery of rehabilitative services in correc-

tional settings. After accompanying hundreds of non-uniform prison staff

throughout their daily professional routines and conducting interviews with

them in institutions supervised by eight different U.S. state prison systems, a

threefold typology of approaches to successfully delivering rehabilitative

services in prison was identif‌ied: holistic, pragmatic, and community-oriented.

Keywords

non-uniform staff, rehabilitation, mental health, education, vocational

training

1

The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

2

Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

Corresponding Author:

Susan Dewey, The University of Alabama Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice,

418 Farrah Hall, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA.

Email: scdewey@ua.edu

Article

The Prison Journal

2024, Vol. 104(2) 135–158

© 2024 SAGE Publications

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/00328855231222410

journals.sagepub.com/home/tpj

Introduction

Non-uniform staff comprise the administrators, mental health counselors,

teachers, group facilitators, and vocational instructors who play a central

role in creating prison social climate conducive to rehabilitation. Their ser-

vices include providing educational and vocational classes, mental health

counseling, employment and reentry preparedness, and family-strengthening

activities. The present study assesses the strategies non-uniform correctional

staff perceive to be associated with successful delivery of rehabilitative ser-

vices in correctional settings. To achieve this goal, the lead author accompa-

nied hundreds of non-uniform prison staff throughout their daily professional

routines and conducted interviews with them in institutions supervised by

eight different U.S. state prison systems. Drawing on triangulated results

from these observations and interviews with academic literature, a threefold

typology of approaches to successfully deliver rehabilitative services in

prison was created: holistic, pragmatic, and community-oriented.

Rehabilitative Services in Prison: A Review of

Approaches

Rehabilitative Services Typically Offered in Prison

Rehabilitative services are central to prison social climate, “the social, emo-

tional, organizational, and physical characteristics of a correctional institution

as perceived by inmates and staff”(Hall & Chong, 2018, p. 231). Among both

incarcerated people and staff, positive prison social climate corresponds with

the shared belief in prison authority as legitimate. This corresponds with

greater wellbeing and participation in classes, programs, and activities

(Auty & Liebling, 2019), and reduced instances of misconduct (Reisig &

Mesko, 2009). Positive prison social climate is inherently therapeutic in ori-

entation because it requires supportive communication and the belief that

incarcerated people can change their lives for the better and avoid recidivism

post-release (Bennett & Shuker, 2018).

The Holistic Approach

The holistic approach serves all incarcerated people, irrespective of sentence

length, and argues that rehabilitative services should encompass the totality of

an incarcerated person’s needs through team-based efforts by security, mental

health, education, and case management staff. This approach emphasizes the

need for a continuum of broad-based family support programs, as those

136 The Prison Journal 104(2)