Prison Climate and Its Role in Reducing Dynamic Risk Factors During Offender Treatment
| Author | Klaus-Peter Dahle,Joscha Hausam,Dahlnym Yoon,Julia Sauter,Joanna Stasch |
| Date | 01 October 2018 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0306624X18778449 |
| Published date | 01 October 2018 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
research-article2018
Article
International Journal of
Offender Therapy and
Prison Climate and Its Role
Comparative Criminology
2018, Vol. 62(14) 4609 –4621
in Reducing Dynamic Risk
© The Author(s) 2018
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Factors During Offender
https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X18778449
DOI: 10.1177/0306624X18778449
journals.sagepub.com/home/ijo
Treatment
Joanna Stasch1, Dahlnym Yoon1,2, Julia Sauter1, Joscha
Hausam1, and Klaus-Peter Dahle1
Abstract
Although several offender treatment experts have suggested that therapeutic
relationships play an important role in offender treatment, empirical finding
supporting those arguments are scarce. The present study has therefore examined
the relationship between prison climate, treatment motivation, and their influence on
changes in risk factors in N = 215 inmates and detainees in four correctional facilities
in Berlin, Germany. The inmates’ perception of prison climate significantly correlated
with their attitudes towards treatment. More positive climate in terms of therapeutic
hold and more positive treatment attitude in terms of trust in therapy were also
the best predictors of stronger decreases in dynamic risk factors measured by the
Level of Service Inventory–Revised (LSI-R). Our results support the importance of
treatment relationship factors within the course of offender rehabilitation.
Keywords
attitudes towards treatment, correctional treatment, dynamic risk factors, offender
treatment, prison climate, treatment efficacy
Introduction
Prison Climate and Its Effects on the Treatment of Offenders
Social climate in correctional facilities and its affect on rehabilitative treatment of
violent and sexual offenders is a vastly under-researched aspect in forensic literature
1Charité–Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany
2University of Hagen, Germany
Corresponding Author:
Joanna Stasch, Institute of Forensic Psychiatry, Charité–Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Oranienburger
Strasse 285, 13437 Berlin, Germany.
Email: joanna.stasch@charite.de
4610
International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 62(14)
(Day, Casey, Vess, & Huisy, 2012). Social climate can be described as a set of charac-
teristics such as material, social, and emotional conditions as well as their interactional
effects (Moos, 1989) that distinguishes organizations from one another. According to
Forehand and von Haller (1964), these characteristics are relatively enduring and
affect the behavior of members of an organization. As for the forensic setting, Schalast,
Redies, Collins, Stacey, and Howells (2008) have pointed out that three factors of
climate should be given special attention to (a) therapeutic hold (which is defined as
support provided by correctional staff), (b) inmates’ cohesion, and (c) perceived safety
within the facility. This conceptualization of prison climate was positively correlated
with treatment readiness in the aforementioned study of Day et al. (2012) with 111
Australian inmates (r = .23, p Correctional treatment facilities aim to provide a sociotherapeutic environment
that is more supportive and safe than a usual prison. A meta-analysis showed that
treatment programs that enable the building of a positive therapeutic relationship are
more effective in reducing recidivism (Dowden & Andrews, 2004). But still little is
known about prison climate and its relationship to treatment processes and treatment
gains. Some promising findings on the importance of group processes and other
concepts related to social climate come from Beech and Hamilton-Giachritsis
(2005). They measured group processes and changes in pro-offending attitudes in a
sample of 100 treated sexual offenders. They found a strong correlation between
reductions in pro-offending attitudes and high perceived group cohesion and expres-
siveness by the members (r = .65, p (1997) found a positive link between favorable group processes and posttreatment
outcomes. Other studies conducted in correctional facilities provide further evidence
for positive effects of prison climate on attitudes towards offending (Woessner &
Schwedler, 2014), dropping out of treatment programs (Moos, Shelton, & Petty,
1973), mental health issues during treatment (Gonçalves, Endrass, Rossegger, &
Dirkzwager, 2016), increased empathy (Heynen, Van der Helm, Cima, Stams, &
Korebrits, 2017), and treatment motivation (Long et al., 2011). Also, higher ratings
of group cohesion and safety were associated with less institutional aggression
(Tonkin et al., 2012) and fewer problematic incidents occurred on the ward (Schalast
et al., 2008). Finally, higher total climate scores were related to lower levels of
behavioral disturbance and fewer episodes of seclusion (Long et al., 2011). Taken
together, there is strong evidence that a positive social climate in correctional facili-
ties is conducive to treatment.
Another important aspect in treatment efficacy is the offender’s motivational pre-
conditions for treatment. There is a considerable amount of recent meta-analytic evi-
dence that a lack of treatment motivation is one of the strongest predictors of treatment
attrition, which in turn is a strong predictor of recidivism (Olver et al., 2011).
Furthermore, for those offenders who complete the treatment, the influence of treat-
ment effectiveness on recidivism seems promising (e.g., Dowden & Andrews, 2000;
Hanson, Bourgon, Helmus, & Hodgson, 2009; Köhler, Lösel, Akoensi, & Humphreys,
2013). More specifically, a growing body of research has shown that the treatment
gain in terms of changes in risk and protective factors could predict reductions in
Stasch et al.
4611
recidivism (e.g., de Vries Robbe, de Vogel, Douglas, & Nijman, 2015). Even in high-
risk psychopathic offenders, changes in risk factors could predict reductions in violent
recidivism (Olver, Lewis, & Wong, 2013). The measurability of treatment motivation
is, however, still disputed as there is no consensus regarding the underlying constructs
of treatment motivation among offenders and thus their measurement methods.
Whereas most of the risk assessment tools include (lack of) treatment motivation as a
risk or protective factor, the definition of treatment motivation varies from negative
attitudes towards risk-monitoring institutions (i.e., Level of Service Inventory–Revised
[LSI-R]; Andrews & Bonta, 1995/2011) to nonresponsiveness or noncompliance
towards treatment (i.e., Historical Clinical Risk Management–20; Webster, Douglas,
Eaves, & Hart, 1997). As a conceptual model, Dahle (1995) suggested that treatment
motivation can be reflected in behavioral and cognitive aspects of inmates, such as
general attitudes towards treatment and judicial system and attribution of causes and
consequences of their behavior and expectations of changes through treatment.
Therefore, elements such as negative attitudes towards treatment, fear of stigmatiza-
tion, and self-disclosure seem to allow a psychometric measurement of resistance to
treatment participation as an overarching construct. According to Dahle (1993), nega-
tive attitudes towards treatment correlate moderately with self-reported treatment
resistance among incarcerated offenders waiting for treatment (n = 120, r = .43).
Although Marshall and Burton (2010) already reviewed and criticized the limited state
of research investigating procedural issues including group climate, which could be
associated with treatment outcomes, studies investigating relationship between treat-
ment climate and treatment motivation in correctional settings are still scarce. For
instance, open treatment climate was also associated with active coping (r = .50, p .01) and treatment motivation (r = .66, p in a Dutch correctional facility, whereas active coping seemed to have a mediating
effect on the link between group climate and treatment motivation (Van...
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