Replacing Military-Style Detention

Minnesota’s Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) program takes a restorative, rehabilitative approach to sex offender re-entry and has lowered the risk of recidivism by 88%. The initiative provides participants with a group of volunteers that help them with emotional support, job finding, and challenge and shift the attitudes and behaviors that led to the committed crime. The rise of the #metoo movement has given way to the complexity of sexual assault, restorative justice, and rehabilitation – making programs like CoSA both more necessary and challenging to sustain.

Across the United States, the use of administrative segregation is being rethought and reduced, as study after study shows it’s link to higher rates of violence and recidivism. At Maine State Prison, over the course of six years, the number of people in solitary went from 100 to 8, while also seeing a decline in fights, use of weapons, and emergency room transportation in the prison’s general population. The prison has instead started implementing individualized mental health programming and structured living units – opting to implement rehabilitation over punitive measures.

Child First is a program in Connecticut, where staff members deliver home-based parent guidance and child-parent psychotherapy to help prevent the detrimental physical and mental effects of toxic stress on children. The engagement is guided by an evidence-based methodology called Child-Parent Psychotherapy, which is grounded in collaborative problem solving.

People who experience trauma in their early childhood are at a higher likelihood of experiencing chronic pain in later years, which often goes untreated. However, emotional awareness and expression therapy, which combines talk therapy with cognitive behavioral therapy, has shown significant success in treating those suffering from this health issue.

Crossroads for Women, a New Mexico nonprofit, is helping formerly incarcerated women find community, support, and recovery. Using trauma-informed care practices, the program offers a comprehensive list of services like housing, mental health treatment, employment counseling, and substance abuse treatment. Underlying all services is the understanding that no individual is trauma free and that community and relationships are crucial to sustainable recovery.

Healing trauma has never been an easy process but programs like Healing Hurt People help to promote recovery in traumatized, angry young men. This program, in partnership with local medical services, aims to provide therapy in place of violence, which would only cause more trauma down the road. Those who stick with the program have found great success in overcoming their pasts.

Chicago's Cook County Jail seeks to short-circuit the cycle of violence by involving young men from the city's most violent zip codes in a program that includes counseling, conflict resolution and anger management. The Sheriff's Anti-Violence Effort, or SAVE, then connects them with services once they're released to find housing and employment. Results are preliminary, but so far more than 80 have gone through the program and 20 were released, with just two ending up back in jail.

Paying at-risk people to stay out of trouble is the most controversial part of a new D.C. crime bill that also proposes counseling and other services to prevent repeat offenses. But a similar program is already in use in D.C., with the blessing of the District’s top prosecutor, giving nonviolent juvenile offenders a second chance. (2nd of a 3 part series)

Assertive community treatment teams working through outreach-centered programs in Maricopa County have become an industry standard for treating those with persistent and severe mental illnesses who have recently been incarcerated. They provide a long-term approach, aiming to halt a cycle of incarceration and hospitalization by focusing on underlying issues such as what caused the police interaction and incarceration.

U.S. courts are offering war veterans who face jail time the choice of rehabilitation. This helps them adjust to civilian life and reduces repeat offences.