One of my goals as Secretary is to expand the use of evidence-based practices in the Department of Correction, making that a standard part of the way we do business. Using evidence-based practices in the corrections field means focusing resources on interventions and treatments that research shows are statistically proven to reduce recidivism.
For many years, corrections agencies placed offenders in programs or followed treatment regimens simply because they thought those programs worked well. Often those programs had little or no impact on changing an offender’s criminal lifestyle, or preventing their return to prison.
One program that we know works, based on research and experience, is Cognitive Behavioral Intervention (CBI). It’s sometimes called “think before you act” because that’s what it teaches offenders – to contemplate the consequences of their actions beforehand. Too often, criminals lack these basic cognitive skills and they act impulsively, and it gets them into trouble. Recent research conducted for the International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology examined 58 cognitive behavioral programs and found that on average, they reduced recidivism by 25%.
We recently received news about a CBI graduation ceremony for probationers in Carteret County. Twelve offenders graduated from the program and a large group of family, friends, church members and even treatment sponsors were there to support them.
Here are some of the comments from those graduates:
“CBI is helping me relearn to use my emotions to my benefit instead of my downfall.”
“This class changed my life more than anything I have ever done.”
“CBI gave me the skills to handle a situation, rather than it handling me.”
“CBI helped me to feel again and to recognize my goals.”
Sometimes you really have to get down to the root level and change someone’s thinking habits in order to get positive outcomes in other areas. That’s part of what we do in corrections. Our goal is to find more programs that work as well as CBI and put them into practice.