Therapeutic community is a participative, group-based approach to long-term mental illness, personality disorders and drug addiction. The approach was usually residential, with the clients and therapists living together, but increasingly residential units have been superseded by day units. It is based on milieu therapy principles, and includes group psychotherapy as well as practical activities.
The TC programs focus on criminal behavior, substance abuse, sexual abuse, and issues related to living in the unit. While most prison activities stress security and custody issues, the TC emphasizes the inmates' personal growth and provides a safe place for free expression. References
HMP Dovegate is a Democratic TC which means that all members of the community (staff and prisoners) have a say in the running of the community and are involved in the decision making for their community. Prisoners are known as residents in the TC and are encouraged to build positive relationships with staff as well as other residents.
Therapeutic communities (TCs) are a common form of long-term residential treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs). Residential treatment for SUDs emerged in the late 1950s out of the self-help recovery movement, which included groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous.
Ideally, therapeutic facilities are separate from the rest of the prison so participants in treatment can live together in a community based on mutual help. Treatment staff members, who include ex-offenders, act as role models and lead social learning activities.
Incarceration-based therapeutic communities (TCs) are separate residential drug treatment programs in prisons or jails for treating substance-abusing and addicted offenders.
Grendon is one of only two prisons in England and Wales dedicated specifically to this type of work. TCs provide prisoners with a range of therapy so they can understand and address their offending behaviour and live in a collaborative setting with their peers and staff.
The Intermediate Sanction Facility (ISF) program is presented in a 45-day format for those needing Cognitive Behavioral Treatment and a 90 day format for those needing a brief substance use treatment program. Clients enter the program referred by a Parole Officer as an alternative to being violated.
The PRTC is an intensive, six-month treatment program for offenders in a therapeutic community setting which provides pre-release services to offenders within seven (7) months of release through the coordination with treatment departments.
Overall, studies find that therapeutic community (TC) participants show improvements in substance abuse, criminal behavior, and mental health symptoms; this is especially true of participants who enter treatment with the most severe problems (De Leon, 2010; Vanderplasschen et al., 2013).
History. Under the influence of Maxwell Jones, Main, Wilmer and developed the concept of the therapeutic community and its attenuated form - the therapeutic milieu - caught on and dominated the field of inpatient psychiatry throughout the 1960's.
The SC-ISF provides an intermediate sanction to revocation that removes the offender from the community. This intermediate sanction is designed to address community supervision violations as well as sanction criminal conduct that can best be addressed by custody that offers cognitive or substance abuse treatment.
COMPONENTS: SPECIAL CONDITION “ISF” (INTERMEDIATE SANCTION FACILITY) Special condition “ISF” is intended to afford a sanction for an offender who fails to comply with the terms and conditions of release to parole or mandatory supervision.
In order to be admitted into intermediate sanction facility, your attorney must obtain an order from the judge to send you to ISF instead of prison. This may require a hearing, and it will require the judge to determine ISF is a more appropriate outcome than revoking the person and sending them to prison.
FI-4R: Transfer to a Sex Offender Education Program for at least four months, with release to parole no earlier than a specified date after program completion.
Substance Abuse Treatment Facilities (SATF) are designed specifically to provide cognitive-based substance abuse treatment. SATFs may also include educational, life skills, and supportive 12-step orientation or modified therapeutic community treatment programs.
Institutional Parole Officers (IPOs) complete interviews and case summaries of all offenders in TDCJ-CID who are eligible for review. They also provide information to offenders on voting panel decisions and the reasons for approval or denial.
Gateway Foundation is perhaps best known for our in-custody Modified Therapeutic Community (TC) treatment model which we have developed and implemented over time based on our experience, careful study of TC research literature, and outcome studies over the past 40 years.
Gateway is committed to providing clients with meaningful, therapeutic, interpersonal interactions, whether they take place in session with staff or within the therapeutic community client milieu. We have modified the traditional TC model according to the premise that therapeutic social interactions are an essential component of treatment.
Through a comprehensive Quality Assurance protocol, our in-custody alcohol treatment and drug treatment programs are constantly evaluated for efficacy and effectiveness, and are modified and updated as advancements are made in both research and the treatment field as a whole.
Prisoners are known as residents in the TC and are encouraged to build positive relationships with staff as well as other residents. Prisoners have to have motivation to change. TC is not an easy option…. “If someone is thinking of applying for TC they should think about it long and hard.
Each prospective TC resident must: Be a life sentence prisoner (either mandatory or discretionary) or determinate sentence prisoner with at least 18 months left to serve (such period shall be calculated as the time between the Referral Date and that residents’ parole eligibility date).
The TC+ community is called ‘Venture’. It is a 20 bed community for prisoners with learning disabilities who have an IQ between 60-80.
The Therapeutic Community at HMP Dovegate is a purpose built 200 bed facility with four 40 bed Communities, a 20 bed Induction Unit and a 20 bed Therapeutic Community plus for those with learning disabilities/low IQ.
Creative methods are also used such as role play, art materials and cue cards. TC+ is a longer process than mainstream TC, taking a minimum of three years. Assessment for TC+ takes place on the Community.
Whilst on the Therapeutic Community, residents are required to complete a minimum of 3 months assessment; at least 18 months in core therapy continually; and engage in a 6 month ending phase.
The TC is a long term, accredited intervention aimed at reducing risk related to offending. TCs are based on the idea that people living together and belonging to a community are able to change through their interpersonal experiences of each other. There are formal therapy groups each day but therapy is happening all of the time, all day every day, ...
The Therapeutic Community (TC) is an environment that helps people get help while helping others. It is a treatment environment: the interactions of its members are designed to be therapeutic within the context of the norms that require for each to play the dual role of client-therapist.
The TC operates in a similar fashion to a functional family with a hierarchical structure of older and younger members. Each member has a defined role and responsibilities for sustaining the proper functioning of the TC. There are sets of rules and community norms that members upon entry commit to live by and uphold.
At a given moment, one may be in a client role when receiving help or support from others because of a problem behavior or when experiencing distress. At another time, the same person assumes a therapist role when assisting or supporting another person in trouble.