Academic and vocational training are common for inmates preparing to reenter the community. Yet what do you do when, despite this education, those who have been released continually violate their parole? Corrections departments across the nation are responding to this question by offering educational programs specifically meant to reduce recidivism by parole violators.

With over half of returning inmates landing behind bars as a result of technical parole violations, the New Hampshire Department of Corrections is launching two new programs to teach offenders how to abide by their parole regulations. By reinforcing the skills necessary to lead productive, crime-free lives, prison officials hope to reduce the overall number of parolees returning to prison for technical violations.

"They need a new way of looking at life," said Bernadette Brauns, program coordinator for Project Second Chance, one of New Hampshire's new programs. "We need to help them realize their old ways are not getting them anywhere."

Project Second Chance

Located at the New Hampshire Department of Corrections Lakes Region Facility in Laconia, Project Second Chance seeks to relieve pressure on the halfway houses and prisons that currently take in the majority of parole violators. While the program is only just beginning a six-month test period, Brauns said that parole officers are excited about a new option for parole violators.

New Hampshire Department of Corrections spokesperson Jeffrey Lyons characterizes Project Second Chance as a "refresher course" on the rules of parole. "With the push for more alternative sentencing in New Hampshire, this is an attempt to reduce future parole violations," said Lyons.

The pilot program's first session is planned for mid to late December, when approximately 20 offenders will meet to reconsider the thought processes that led to their parole violations. The 28-day residential program will offer community meetings, discussions, and group counseling. By creating an environment where offenders can reassess their understanding of authority, program leaders hope to build offenders' respect for authority and laws.

"If offenders are brought up in a destructive atmosphere, [crime] is normal. This leads to anger issues, assaults, and convictions," said Brauns. By offering a curriculum that addresses criminal and addictive thinking, Brauns hopes to teach offenders to think differently.

By reconstructing what Brauns calls "illogical, rigid thinking patterns" into patterns that include a respect for authority, the program seeks to lessen the possibility of offenders violating their parole again.

To ease offenders out of these destructive reasoning patterns, the program will promote interpersonal problem solving, critical reasoning and creative thinking.

Project Second Chance will teach these skills through both group counseling sessions and elective classes. In addition to counseling, Brauns hopes to bring in members of the local community to teach everything from yoga to personal accounting to bring relaxation and order to offenders' lives. By easing their transition back into the community, Brauns believes offenders will be more likely not to violate their parole.

Brauns hopes offenders will realize that parole is not about getting around the rules, but instead about following them. Designed for offenders coming directly from the community, the program will offer participants the opportunity to rethink their actions before they lead them back to prison.

A Program for Current Inmates

While Project Second Chance focuses on parole violators from the community, a similar program at the Lakes Region Facility teaches inmates who have returned to prison as a result of parole violations how to avoid making the same mistake twice.

Currently in its second eight-week session, program C3 PV seeks to teach inmates many of the same life skills and thinking patterns as Project Second Chance. Named for the security level of the parole violators it counsels, C3 PV begins by evaluating why offenders have disregarded the terms of their parole.

"Most of the time, when somebody comes back they don't know why," said Katherine Wilson, program coordinator. By assessing the pattern of thoughts and actions that led to the violation, Wilson hopes repeat offenders will learn to identify the beliefs and behaviors that prevented them from successful reintegration into the community.

"Often we're dealing with defense mechanisms, resentments, and stress anxiety," said Wilson. The program seeks to teach offenders to recognize these problems and offers strategies for working through them. In addition to relapse prevention counseling, offenders in the program receive socialization and reintegration counseling. Wilson hopes that what the offenders learn during these sessions will help them to avoid falling into the same destructive patterns after their release.

"It's difficult when they go back out there," said Wilson. "They're [trying to change] maybe 20 years of the same patterns."

But despite the challenge of breaking those bad habits, Wilson expects that inmates will leave her program believing in themselves and their ability to lead a law-abiding life. While it is still too early to evaluate the program's effectiveness, Wilson said she hopes her techniques will help push recidivism rates down.

"One size doesn't fit all," said Wilson. "All we can do is keep trying new approaches."

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For more information, contact the N.H. DOC (603) 271-5602