Book Review: THE TOKEN ECONOMY IN PRISON SETTINGS-How Much Has It Achieved?
| Published date | 01 March 1981 |
| Date | 01 March 1981 |
| DOI | 10.1177/009385488100800108 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
119
BOOK
REVIEW
THE
TOKEN
ECONOMY
IN
PRISON
SETTINGS-
How
Much
Has
It
Achieved?
CORRECTIONAL
REHA BILITA TION A ND
MANAGEMENT:
A
PSYCHOLOGICAL
APPROACH.
By
Teodoro
Ayllon
and
Michael
A.
Milan
(with
the
assistance
of
Michael
D.
Roberts
and
John
M.
McKee).
New
York:
John
Wiley,
1979.
Pp.
280.
Since
its
publication,
Ayllon
and
Azrin’s
The
Token
Economy
( 1968)
has
had
a
massive
effect
on
psychological
practice.
Their
system
has
been
widely
implemented,
thoroughly
researched,
and,
often,
heavily
criticized.
Now,
13
years
later,
Ayllon,
in
collaboration
with
Milan
(and
with
the
assistance
of
Roberts
and
McKee),
has
published
Correctional
Rehabilitation
and
Management.
If
the
authors’
advocacy
of
the
use
of
behavioral
methods
in
prisons
has
one-quarter
the
impact
of
Ayllon’s
previous
book,
it
is
a
very
important
contribution
indeed.
The
contents
of
the
book
fall
into
four
distinct
sections.
First,
the
authors
consider
the
relative
merits
of
the
mental
illness
and
behavioral
models
in
psychiatry
and
corrections.
A
thoroughgoing,
rebuttal
of
the
former
approach
leads
next
to
an
outline
of
the
principles,
and
the
results,
of
behavior
modification.
Third,
the
use
of
these
methods
with
offenders
is
discussed
with
particular
attention
to
practical
and
ethical
issues.
In
the
last,
and
most
important,
part
of
the
book,
the
authors’
own
research
in
two
U.S.
state
prisons
is
described
to
exemplify
in
detail
how
token
economy
methods
may
be
used
to
facilitate
the
rehabilitation
and
management
of
offenders.
If
one
assumes
that the
&dquo;target
popula-
tion&dquo;
for
this
book
is
made
up
of
nonpsychologically
trained
practi-
tioners
who
deal
with
behavioral
problems
within
an
institutional
setting,
then
the
necessity
for
the
opening
sections
is
apparent.
Such
newcomers
to
the
field
may,
however,
need
to
refer
to
more
comprehen-
sive
texts
to
gain
a
thorough
understanding
of
behavior
modification,
while
readers
familiar
with
this
approach
may
skip
most
of
the
first
120
pages.
After
all,
the
main
substance
of
the
book
is
a
detailed
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