Table Of ContentAnthony Walsh
Jessica Wells
Shaun M. Gann
Correctional
Assessment,
Casework, and
Counseling
6th Edition
Correctional Assessment, Casework,
and Counseling
Anthony Walsh • Jessica Wells
Shaun M. Gann
Correctional Assessment,
Casework, and Counseling
Sixth Edition
Anthony Walsh Jessica Wells
Department of Criminal Justice Department of Criminal Justice
Boise State University Boise State University
Boise, ID, USA Boise, ID, USA
Shaun M. Gann
Department of Criminal Justice
Boise State University
Boise, ID, USA
ISBN 978-3-030-55225-1 ISBN 978-3-030-55226-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55226-8
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Preface
In the introduction to the first edition of this book, Dr. Walsh wrote:
Most social work and psychology texts to which many of us have had to turn for guidance
in interviewing and counseling do not respond to the special needs of criminal justice cli-
ents. These works proceed on the assumption that counseling clients are largely self-
selected and are motivated to explore the problems that brought them to the counselor’s
office. Criminal justice clients, on the other hand, are usually extremely reluctant to be in
any counseling situation, are often impervious to the problems that led to such a situation,
and typically have a congenital dislike for anyone who works for the system. This book
assesses the special problems of interviewing and counseling under these conditions.
These words continue to be true in this sixth edition because nothing has changed
about offenders since then (they are still not thrilled with what we offer and still do
not like us very much). A number of publishers have discovered the need for inter-
viewing and counseling texts specific to corrections since the first edition of this
book, however. Good! Competition keeps us all on our toes and constantly improv-
ing; hence, the sixth edition of this book. Although the first edition was widely
recognized as the most complete and comprehensive book of its kind, we have con-
tinued to make improvements over the various editions. This edition has improved
on the earlier editions in a number of ways:
1. We extensively updated the entire book using the latest research, data, and
statistics.
2. Many chapters were restructured so that the information flows more smoothly.
3. Chapter 5 now includes a more thorough discussion of the four generations of
risk and needs assessments.
4. We added a section to Chap. 7 that discusses the Principles of Effective
Intervention and the “Central Eight” risk factors that should be addressed in
treatment programs.
5. We included a more detailed discussion of the theoretical backdrop to Reality
Therapy in Chap. 8.
6. Chapter 10 now includes a discussion of the prisonization and importation
models of inmate behavior.
7. The list of national volunteer groups for offenders and victims in Chap. 11 has
been updated and expanded.
v
vi Preface
8. We updated the diagnostic criteria of alcohol use disorders as outlined in the
new DSM-5, and updated drug treatment information recently outlined in FDA
recommendations in Chap. 14.
9. In the chapter on drug use, we included relevant information about the recent
opioid epidemic, the emergence of the synthetic drug market, and marijuana
legalization in some states.
10. We discuss the implications of the FBI’s recent change in their definition of
rape, as well as paraphilic mental disorders outlined in the DSM-5.
11. We made substantial revisions to the “Environmental Risk Factors” section of
Chap. 18 to better illustrate these risk factors of juvenile delinquency found in
the literature.
12. In Chap. 19, we added a discussion of the multiple threshold hypothesis.
The most important change to the sixth edition is the addition of two co-authors:
Dr. Jessica Wells and Dr. Shaun Gann. I hope they will continue to take this book
into ever more new editions after this old dude has laid down his pen for the last
time. Both new co-authors have published extensively, and Dr. Gann previously
worked as a parole officer in Arkansas. My former co-author, Dr. Mary Stohr, gra-
ciously agreed to step down in favor of these two bright young (at least they’re
young to me) scholars.
The sixth edition, like the previous editions, has benefited greatly from reviews
and criticisms of the previous editions that both the editorial staff of the American
Correctional Association and Springer solicited. We have accommodated most of
the suggestions made by these reviewers and critics, both academics and
practitioners.
We geared the chapters on interviewing and counseling exclusively to the cor-
rectional client. The chapter on interviewing contains a section on interrogation, and
the counseling chapters address individual and group counseling in both community
and institutional settings.
Unlike most counseling works, this one recognizes that proper assessment is a
necessity before any type of counseling or other intervention is attempted. Thus, we
have included two chapters on assessment and classification, which include numer-
ous examples of the various instruments now used in corrections for this purpose.
The professional assessment of clients has been a central part of the counseling
course we teach at Boise State, and we have always found it useful to use case
studies.
We recognize that correctional clients need more than counseling to turn their
lives around. The correctional worker is as much a broker of community resources
as a counselor or supervising agent. Consistent with that view, we include a chapter
outlining how correctional workers can use community resources, including volun-
teers. Recognizing and including the community in the goals of contemporary cor-
rections work is at the heart of the philosophy of restorative justice.
This book encompasses a tremendous amount of material, all of which is avail-
able in more detail elsewhere. As we point out in the chapter on presentence report
writing, the secret of professional report writing is the ability to glean from
Preface vii
voluminous and diverse sources all that is necessary, and not merely nice, to know.
We hope that we have done that in this book.
Boise, ID, USA Anthony Walsh
Acknowledgements
We acknowledge the input of the academics and correctional practitioners who
reviewed previous editions of this book, their thoughts and suggestions have proved
very valuable. We also thank professors and students who have informally discussed
with us the strengths and weaknesses of previous editions. Thanks also to our editor,
Judith Newlin, whose encouragement and advice helped get us through this exten-
sive revision. All these people have contributed to making this edition a better one
than it otherwise would have been. Thanks also to our copy editor Gomathi
Mohanarangan and production editor Vidhya Hariprasanth, as well as the rest of the
Springer publication team for their excellent work.
Anthony Walsh: Special thanks to my wife, Grace Jean (a.k.a. “Grace the face”).
She is the center of my world, the core of my existence, the light of my life. People
sometimes ask me why I go around whistling and singing all the time like the vil-
lage idiot. Grace’s love has adorned me across the years and has made my heart sing
and my mind dance, so if I’m a fool, I’m a fool for love. Thank you, Gracie, mia
bella donna. (I wrote this thank you to Gracie more than 25 years ago. Does it still
apply? You bet, even more so and with bells on!).
Jessica Wells: I would like to acknowledge my mother, Tammy Tate, who always
encourages me to follow my passions, my sister, Vanessa White, who keeps me
grounded on my journey, and my mentors, Todd Armstrong and Danielle Boisvert,
who gave me the tools necessary to be successful in my pursuit. I would also like to
acknowledge all of the members of the CJ community that do the hard work of
implementing the strategies that are outlined in these pages every day.
Shaun M. Gann: I would like to thank my parents, Janet and John Gann, who
have provided unlimited support throughout my academic career. I would also like
to thank my mentors—Jeff Walker, Stacy Moak, and Chris Sullivan—who guided
and supported me through graduate school and beyond. Finally, I would like to
acknowledge my ridiculously spoiled Boston Terrier, Chief Gann, who has been my
sounding board for the past 6 years (though, admittedly, he’s horrible at providing
constructive feedback).
ix
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Casework, Assessment, Counseling, and Criminal Justice . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 The Usefulness of Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 Correctional Philosophy and Restorative Justice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2 The Self: Principal Tool of the Correctional Helper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 The Self-Concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2 Self-Esteem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3 Qualities of Effective Correctional Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3.1 The Correctional Worker Must Possess a Thorough
Knowledge of Criminal Behavior and Its Correlates . . . . . . . 16
2.3.2 The Correctional Worker Must Be Realistic:
Neither a Pollyanna nor a Cassandra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.3.3 Correctional Workers Do Not Use Offenders
to Satisfy Their Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.3.4 The Correctional Worker Inspires Trust, Confidence,
and Credibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.3.5 The Correctional Worker Reaches Inward as well
as Outward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.4 The Benefits of Self-Disclosure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.4.1 Improving Your Self-Concept Through Self-Disclosure . . . . 21
2.4.2 The Johari Window: An Aid to Self-Understanding . . . . . . . 22
2.4.3 Application to the Offender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.5 The Mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.7 Exercises in Self-Exploration Through Disclosure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3 Interviewing and Interrogating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.1 Purpose of the Criminal Justice Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.1.1 The Offender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.1.2 Prepare and Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
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xii Contents
3.1.3 Engage and Explain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.1.4 Account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.1.5 Closure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.1.6 Evaluate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.2 Techniques of Interviewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.2.1 Active Listening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.2.2 Be Alert and Flexible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.2.3 Questioning and Probing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.2.4 Resist the Temptation to Interrupt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.2.5 Keeping the Offender in the Foreground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.2.6 Some Further Impediments to Active Listening . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.2.7 Responding: Guiding the Offender’s Disclosure . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.3 The Victim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.3.1 Interviewing the Victim: Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.3.2 When Not to Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.3.3 Conducting the Interview: Asking for Details
of the Offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.4 Reassuring the Victim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.4.1 Promises to the Victim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.4.2 Terminating the Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.5 Interrogating the Offender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.5.1 Distinguishing Between Interviewing and Interrogation . . . . 49
3.5.2 Being Confident by Being Prepared . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.5.3 Conducting the Interrogation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.5.4 Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.5.5 Ask Leading Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.5.6 Reveal a Little Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.5.7 Letting Offenders Damn Themselves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.5.8 Taking Advantage of Offender Discomfort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.5.9 Bluffing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.5.10 The “Back Door” Approach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.5.11 Terminating the Interrogation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.7 Exercise in Listening and Interviewing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4 The Presentence Investigation Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.1 Uses of the Presentence Investigation Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4.1.1 Judicial Sentencing Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
4.1.2 Departmental and Institutional Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.1.3 Parole Decisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.1.4 Counseling Plans and Community Agency Referrals . . . . . . 61
4.2 Sample Presentence Investigation Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.3 Discussion of Sample Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.3.1 Circumstances of Offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.3.2 Statement of the Defendant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
