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| Department of change |
| By Brent Matthews |
| Published: 10/30/2006 |
Can you feel it? The world of corrections is changing. It is no small matter that an article such as, Teaching Emotional Intelligence Skills (Corrections.com, 8/30/06, Tudor) came to our desktops. A quote from that article states, “In the process of acquiring Emotional Intelligence (EI) skills, our core beliefs get stirred up, as well as our fears, resentments and biases.” I would guess a good many readers just seeing the word “emotional” passed right over the article because it might lead to the scary territory of vulnerability, and can anyone in the prison system be safe when there is a “chink in the armor”? By definition EI, “Â…refers to the abilities to recognize and regulate emotions in ourselves and in others. This most parsimonious definition suggests four EI domains: Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness and Relationship Management.”1 This suggests that knowing ourselves is a strength that can lead to better management with others and to safety in the workplace. Self-management has the goal of creating change in how we behave at our jobs, in relationships and in the world. It is, basically, how we feel about things. And how we feel about things is based on our origin, culture, race, personal history, education and more. Our feelings also affect our ideas on how to solve problems. Sometimes feelings, instead of real data or evidence, can lead to policies that can help challenges in our society. This is more relevant than ever in corrections, as the field shifts from a culture of zero tolerance and three strikes to a new horizon of the Second Chance Act whose purpose is to reduce recidivism, and help states better address offenders returning to their communities. The good news is that we can dialogue about what is not working in our prisons and then try to incorporate the changes we talk about. Our policies and how we use our own EI both have an implicit interest in this change process. But our theories of what works and for whom must be more than emotional and more than personal. They must be effective. Emotions are not just related to our own change and self-management but actually serve as basis for managing others. Nike has its own theory of change that we all can recite; “Just Do It.” Certainly there are many parents who share that theory for their own children when frustrated. Our correctional facilities, just in its structure and application, convey their own theory of change, as do the individuals who work in these prisons and jails. Let's look at what corrections might consider its theory of change and the language that represents it. It some cases corrections might be known as the department of punishment, and those with strong feelings about this idea perhaps believe that offenders should never receive help. This leads to a theory that offenders will never change, or that we could never keep the community safe from them. However, when society looks at one's crime in a decreased level of severity or begins to believe that someone can change, it will begin to shift its own theory of change. This may then impact how corrections shifts its theory of how to change the offender. Until recently, corrections' responsibility ended when offenders left their facility. Now this industry is working hard on new re-entry approaches to overcompensate for a national problem that has resulted in a correctional society the suffers from a catastrophic loss of human capital. With these new re-entry efforts come new theories of change that will require new beliefs and skill sets for staff, and they will be challenged. But they are at the root of whether or not a re-entry program will be successful. We may accept a new program or even accept help that was never offered before. Facility leaders and staff, however, must believe in these approaches and understand how they help change people from inmates to contributing citizens since they actually meet and treat the offender. If they don't believe in this new theory of change, we will find that they will follow rules merely out of obligation instead of with the spirit or EI that can make all the difference. And recidivism rates might result in little else but “a plan that just looked good on paper and nothing more.” Hardest to embrace is that prison itself creates trauma, and much of the practitioner's battle is due to the self-inflicted symptoms of a well intended, yet failing, theory of change that overlaps with the duty to protect the community. This is an emotional issue because part of the belief is that criminals deserve trauma but they can also serve as a change tool. It is evident that adding trauma to issues of poverty, racism, mental illness and addiction, however, is costing us dearly both in financial and human terms. We need new skill sets and beliefs that examine what works and what doesn't. It is evident that corrections is at the center of how our society must change. It is at the crux of a transformative process that addresses how we must truly learn to treat one another. Perhaps our greatest work and challenge will be to address these issues at pre-entry, something in which our communities can be involved. Therefore, when it comes to keeping the community safe and reclaiming our human capital, it becomes everyone's job to make corrections a department of change. Brent Matthews is the program director for Action Coalition to Ensure Stability, which is part of Choices, Inc., a nonprofit organization coordinating services for people involved with multiple governmental systems. He can be contacted at 317.472.8432. Check out www.ChoicesTeam.org/ for more information. Related Sources and Articles: A Review of the Emotional Intelligence Literature and Implications for Corrections Teaching Emotional Intelligence Skills (Corrections.com, 8/30/06, Tudor) Footnote: 1 Emotional Intelligence: Issues in Paradigm Building. From the book The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace. Edited by: Cary Cherniss and Daniel Goleman |
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