Contingency Management Programs in Corrections: Another Panacea?

• Published date: 01 February 2018
• Date: 01 February 2018
• Author: Shelley J. Listwan,Paul Gendreau
• DOI: 10.1177/1043986217750426
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1043986217750426

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2018, Vol. 34(1) 35 –46

© The Author(s) 2018

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DOI: 10.1177/1043986217750426

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Article

Contingency Management

Programs in Corrections:

Another Panacea?

Paul Gendreau1 and Shelley J. Listwan2

Abstract

The mantra of best practices in corrections, while well intended, may lead to iatrogenic

consequences. Community corrections and prisons are under increasing pressures to

manage their caseloads; moreover, the current accountability and get-tough agenda

in corrections demands offenders take on more responsibility for their behaviors. As

a consequence, we predict more episodes of “panaceaphilia” or quick fix solutions

because corrections jurisdictions in the United States are under tremendous

pressure to handle their populations at this point in time. In this article, we focus on

contingency management programs as the potential next panacea, not because they

do not have a proven track record of success, but because they require highly skilled

staff and make great demands upon correctional agencies’ decision-making practices.

To help counteract panaceaphilia from happening with contingency management, we

describe the theory and practice of contingency management, the demands they place

on programmers, the type of research needed to evaluate their effectiveness, and

how to prevent these programs from turning into punitive punishment regimes.

Keywords

token economy, contingency management, correctional rehabilitation

Introduction

With more than 2.2 million Americans behind bars and 4.7 million more on commu-

nity supervision (Kaeble, Glaze, Tsoutis, & Minton, 2016), there is an increasingly

strong desire to manage the correctional population more effectively. The term best

1University of New Brunswick, Saint John, Canada

2University of North Carolina at Charlotte, NC, USA

Corresponding Author:

Shelley J. Listwan, Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, University of North Carolina at

Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd, Charlotte, NC 28223, USA.

Email: slistwan@uncc.edu

750426CCJXXX10.1177/1043986217750426Journal of Contemporary Criminal JusticeGendreau and Listwan

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