Purposeful Interactions with CJ Clients

Duties and Responsibilities for having CJ Clients

•Maintain files

•Develop treatment plans

•Monitor performance and progress

•Periodically prepare reports

•Conduct interviews and interventions

•Represent clients to other staff

•Make treatment recommendations

What are the Special Problems & Challenges with working with CJ clients?

•Large and diverse caseloads

•Low salaries

•Lack of institutional support

•Treatment not a high priority

•Reluctant, resistant clients

•Maintaining confidentiality while insuring security

•Being conned by clients

•Becoming hardened

•Conning our clients

What are 2 important issues when dealing with CJ clients?

•Help client responsibly share their frustrations

•Help client recognize that you are a helping professional

For CJ clients, Anger masks…

fear, weakness, desperation

•Clients feel controlled and dominated

What are some essential skills to to dealing with CJ Clients?

•Timing

•Professional humility

•Attentiveness

•Active listening

•Careful interpretation

•Excellent communication

True or False, Problems have taken a lifetime to evolve and can’t be resolved overnight.

true, cannot be solved quickly

How can we help clients look at consquences?

•Impulsivity has gotten them into deep trouble

•Teach them to assess costs and benefits

•Focus on the here and now

What are some questions for a client to contemplate?

•Who am I?

•Where am I going?

•Why?

How to Measure Effectiveness of Intervention?

•Institutional adjustment?

•Community safety?

•Client insight and personality change?

•Successful readjustment to community?

•Most cost effective?

•Recidivism?

How is a interventuon considered successful?

•Helping client develop skills and make good choices

•Providing access to resources for becoming law abiding citizen

What is the professional responsibilty for the physical setting while with a CJ client?

•Insure privacy

•Provide your undivided attention

•Be thoroughly familiar with the case

•Move from least threatening questions to most (use semi-structured interview)

•Situate yourself at arm’s length

What are some key skills of professionals working with CJ Clients?

•Establishing rapport

•Being genuine

•Being concrete

•Avoiding threats and intimidation

•Being prepared

Core Conditions for Positive Change to Occur

•Empathic Understanding

•Positive Regard

•Genuineness

Interviewing CJ Clients requires?

•Active listening

•Noting body language

•Familiarity with case

•Comfortable physical setting

•Respect and rapport

Initiating the Interview

•Handshake

•Introductions

•Eye contact

•Use last names

•Explain your role

•Explain purpose of interview

Guiding the Discussion

•Questioning and probing (not grilling)

•Use of open-ended and closed-ended questions

•Try to elicit responses

•Permit silences

•Summarize

Qualities of Effective Correctional Workers

•Relationship factors

•Authority factors

•Anti-criminal modeling and reinforcement

•Concrete problem solving

•Advocacy and brokerage

Factors of a CJ Professional and Client relationship

•Openness

•Enthusiasm

•Caring

•Respect

•Professionalism

Authority factors of a CJ Professional and Client

•Firm but fair

•Explain rules vs. requests

•Reinforce behavioral compliance

•Do not use dominance and abuse to enforce

Anti-criminal Modeling demonstrates and reinforces…

•Demonstrate character and professionalism

•Reinforce non-criminal thinking, feeling and behaving

Cassandra

•sees bad in everything

  cast iron

Pollyanna

finds good in everything   pushover

Important CJ Professional qualities…

•Thorough knowledge of criminal behavior

•Be realistic (neither Cassandra nor Pollyanna)

•Do not use offenders to satisfy your needs

•Inspire trust, confidence and credibility

•Reach inward as well as outward

Goals