DD310 Counselling: Therapeutic Services for Women Prisoners Report

This report explores therapeutic services for women prisoners, focusing on safety, professionalism, and case analysis. It addresses challenges like unacceptability mindsets and workload issues, while highlighting benefits such as anxiety reduction and suicide attempt prevention. The report discusses inmate group therapy, peer group counseling, and re-entry services, as well as reasons for non-responsiveness to therapy, such as mistrust and confidentiality concerns. It emphasizes providing special attention to inmates with suicidal thoughts through mental health interventions and explores the role of depression, particularly during the transition from prison to society. The document concludes by underscoring the importance of addressing mental illness and offering immediate medical attention to restore inmates to a rightful state of mind.

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Report on a therapeutic measure for prisoners
Name
Institution

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Introduction
Therapeutic service is a recovery process where affected individuals are taken through a
series of talks and discussions on overcoming an issue thatis a potential threat to their health and
life in general. The victims are usually taken through the process by professional counselors who
employ all that is required to restore normalcy to the life of the victim or counselee. In this
scenario the target group is women prisoners who have gone through sexual abuse and have been
convicted of several crimes repeatedly. This report therefore will present the way the victims will
be accorded necessary support to overcome the situation.
Issues to be considered
Safety
The prisons governor should take into considerations the safety of those who will be
implementing the therapeutic services since some of the clients who are women prisoners may be
aggressive and violent. This is evident in self harm which some are undertaking an aspect that
implies that they do not fear inflicting injuries on other people. The safety can be achieved by
providing adequate security to the professionals who will show up for the sessions.
Professionalism
To help the women prisoners recover from the suicidal attempts, self harm and low self
esteem will take the intervention of a professional. The governor should not therefore allow non-
professionals to conduct casual sessions which will at the end up amount to time and resources

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wastage. The governor should then ensure the professional who will be offered the opportunity
to conduct the session is a well known and highly productive individual whose work is well
known. Preferably a counselor of the same sex as the victims may give out exceptional
results.Quality of the output should be the consideration of the governor instead of a mere
counseling session.
Analysis of the cases
The institution should analyze the cases of the victims to determine the extent of each
case. This will help the staff to give out accurate information to the counselor about each and
every client and the extent of damage caused by the circumstances to her life. The counselor will
therefore be able to identify the various requirements and methods to employ in the process of
counseling. To those with similar cases, he or she will be in a position to initiate group
counseling and individual counseling for those with exceptional cases.
Challenges of therapeutic measures in prison setting
Unacceptability mindset
Some of the individuals in the prison who have engaged in socially unacceptable
activities and other strongly condemned issues in the society, have got a mentality that they are
always on the wrong. Furthered by the Prison which can be described as a tense and frightening
place, where electronically controlled gates and high fences topped with barbed wire make new
inmates feel they are entering another world quite inescapable an aspect that disappoints many.
This aspect lowers the persons self-esteem, self-worth and some consider themselves as good for

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no benefit. The society view of these individuals usually project them out as bad, unwanted,
barbaric and all sorts of strong condemns are thrown to them. This therefore makes them
alienated from people and they then tend to thick that that is the way all people view them. This
aspect will lead to most of them becoming unwilling to open up. Those who were convicted for
crimes they did not commit usually have a sense of being hated by the society thus may end up
confining their information and problems within themselves.
Bigger workload
The number of inmates is usually very high compared to the number of psychologists
who give the therapeutic services in prisons. This makes it very difficult for the psychologist or
counselor to provide the adequately required attention to each and every other individual. An
American firm gave the ratio as 1:375 meaning that one psychologist is supposed to cater for 375
inmates who all have different cases. This therefore calls for general sessions which are
ineffective when compared with individual counseling. The inmates then carry on their suffering
without any relevant help since generalization of information and facts is unavoidable during
sessions.
Clients are usually offenders
The convicts are generally the clients of a psychologist in the prison setting. A majority
of them have got issues which have affected them either directly or indirectly. Some of them
have health problems, others have got negative childhood experiences, others are under the
influence of drugs, others are mentally handicapped and yet others have no education (DD310-

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17J Counseling and forensic psychology: investigating crime and therapy, 2017). All these
problems within the lives of the inmates make it tricky for the psychologist to respond to all the
inmates generally an aspect that leads to having time for each and every one of the inmates.
Those without education have to be addressed separately in a language they understand and if it
is impossible then they stay unattended to an aspect leads to a sense of neglect. Mentally ill
inmates who are unable to stay with others are put in isolation cells an aspect that leads to more
damage to them.
Benefits of therapeutic measures in prison
Handles anxiety
A higher percentage of the prisoners are usually anxious. The anxiety results from the
harsh isolated environmental conditions and routines. The routine that they have to undertake is
constantly monitored by cameras around the buildings and harsh staff who do not actually
understand what an individual might be going through. This anxiety is handled when a
therapeutic service is conducted since the inmates will be able to come to terms with their life
again. The amount of time one is convicted in the prison also creates a lot of fear in which the
inmates are unwilling to share their information because they fear lengthening of their term in
the confines.
Reduces Suicide attempts
Therapeutic services in a prison will reduce suicide attempts which inmates try as a way
of escaping the unbearable life in the prison environment. Due to the harsh experiences by the

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treatment inmates receive from the staff that enforces the rule of law and that from fellow
inmates who inculcate by the most difficult means prisons life into new convicts leads to
increased cases of suicide attempt and self-harm. When therapy is done at a personal level, an
individual will be able to cope with the prison life for a moment as they await their freedom to be
granted.
Enhances an informed consent
Therapeutic services in the prison setting enhance making of concrete decisions. These
informed decisions end up changing the cause of one’s life after they secure a release from the
chains. Reformation then is inculcated an aspect that makes an individual to concentrate on
factors that will better their life outside the prison. Due to this decision an inmate therefore is
able to concentrate on the services provided which are aimed at improving their life outside the
prison.
Appropriate types of therapy to offer
Inmate group therapy
This involves bringing together inmates with the same conviction charges e.g armed
robbery, drug trafficking, murder e.t.c. the inmates then are taken through intense or rigorous
moment of allowing each one of them to tell what and how they committed the crime. They are
encouraged to take part and none of them should be forced to produce any information. The
group is then educated on the importance of good relationship with other people an aspect that

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will improve their intrapersonal skills. the limitation of this method is that inmates tend to think
that they are being lured into telling the whole truth with an aim of extending their jail
termSecondly most of them do not wish to remember what they went through thus avoid
revisiting their haunting past too much. Group may tell false information in a bid to impress their
fellows who might have been engaged in lesser activities therefore determining the whole truth
remains a misery. The benefit of this method is that larger group is reached at the same time and
reforms also take place easily since inmates will encourage each other to change.
Peer group counseling
This method of therapy involves introducing activities to be undertaken together by
inmates as they share out to the professional what brought them to confines. As they continue to
learn a skill, they continue getting reformed as they begin forgetting the past which might full of
negative impact. The group then is assisted to overcome their challenges an aspect that leads to
many of them on the recovery road. The disadvantage is that some of the inmates will remain
quite concentrating on the skill forgetting they also need to revisit their past and correct their
current behavior. Some of the inmates may also be too unconfident to mention their mistakes an
aspect that makes either to deny their pastor creatively make another one.
Re-entry services
This comprises of people who are almost to be granted parole. They are taken through a
practical way of reformation where the security around them is lessened, leadership position are

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given to them and other responsibilities. All this is done to inculcate a sense of responsibility to
the convicts so that when their term ends they will be able to undertake their activities with
minimum supervision since officers will not be around them always. The disadvantage is
pretense by some of the inmates while trying to impress the authority. Biasness due to
information linked to the expectation of parole grinding is always high.
Reasons that may lead to female prisoners not to respond to therapy
The inmates may fail to respond to therapy due to various issues that may have affected
them in the past. First, some of them might be convicts who have been betrayed by close family
members an aspect that leads to development of a higher level of mistrust. The mistrust and
insecurity leads them to failing to open up since some may think that their information will be
used to further the judgments attached to their various cases. Mistrust therefore makes inmates
too quick to judge an individual and they may decide at a group level that they are going to say
nothing but only sitting down, listening and watching.
Confidentiality also is a major issue that contributes to female prisoner’s lack of response
to therapy. The crimes some of them are convicted off are socially unacceptable an aspect that
makes them unwilling to share the information. Many of the prisoners therefore are in constant
fear that the information shared may end up being spread out hence making others suspect them.
The past may also be tormenting and they would not wish to remember the crimes they didan
aspect that leads to keeping off from the counselors.
How to help those with suicidal thoughts

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Individuals with self-harm and suicidal thoughts need more attention that the rest. The
risk associated with self-harm should therefore be the driving force to give them special
attention. Most of the in mates who have got the tendency of self-harm and suicidal claim are in
many cases not in their right state of mind. Interventions to help the inmates overcome mental
illness are therefore a instant requirement to reduce the chances of losing lives. Mental illness
which may result from continued actions under drug influence may need immediate medical
attention to restore the victim unto a rightful state of mind.
Depression is another major cause of suicidal attempts especially when one is about to be
released from behind bars. This happens because many of the inmates find the transition period
from jail to the society difficult. This is because the society will continue to imprison them since
they may not be fully accepted as other members. The depression then of going back to the
people you once committed wrongs against hounds them down to self-harm and suicidal
thoughts. This challenge should be eradicated through specialized sessions with the counselors
and medical attention to ensure the right state of mind is restored and that the particular
individual is stable emotionally and mentally.
How to help victims of sexual and domestic abuse
Victims of sexual and domestic abuse have got injustice attached to their cases. Most of
the women that have gone through domestic violence find themselves behind bars because the
police filed to identify the primary aggressor. The primary aggressor always threaten the other
counterpart that incases they are jailed; the female will get it rough when the aggressor is
released. This aspect has led to many of the women prisoners to avoid scrutinizing their

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counterparts in court thus prefer serving the jail term and be safe when they are out. The justice
department should therefore investigate all matters pertaining sexual abuse and domestic
violence in a bid to ensure the appropriate individual is the one convicted. These women should
be taken through rigorous group counseling where they are assisted to let go of what might have
happened to them individual counseling should also be accorded to every individual so as to
handle the conflicts within a person in a personal levelAppropriate medication should be
conducted with an aim of giving out suggestions and advice to the inmates. In sexual matters
where vulnerable are involved, proper education should be given to the inmates and limits
according to the law are raised so as to help them not to fall into the same trap again since it may
lead to serious conviction and lengthy terms in jail.
Preventing reoffending
Reoffending is the act of repeating the same mistakes after one is released from prison
that will lead to another jail term. This brings extended constraints to the prison and to the budget
which has to be adjusted to accommodate the convict once again (DD310-18J Counseling and
forensic psychology: investigating crime and therapy, 2018). Reoffending can be avoided
through; provision of a course to the inmates is one of the best ways to ensure smooth transition
from prison to the community since building back life is very difficult after serving behind
barsThe trainings should be offered based on the interest of each of the inmates and not merely
dictate what one should choose. The skills acquired from the course will benefit the individual
through gaining employment or starting an own enterprise where they can practice the skill.

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Provision of housing for a specified period of time should also be done. This will help
individual to adapt slowly back into the society and independent life without a direct exposure
from prison to the society which can torment them further (DD310-18J Counseling and forensic
psychology 2019) The houses should then be reclaimed from them once one is fully adapted to
the environment and conversant of an activity to undertake to generate capital to build up own
life. The houses can be rented to those interested at a fee to ensure a sense of responsibility has
been inculcated back into them.
Close monitoring and provision of guidance services should not stop at the exit from the
prison. The inmates can always be recalled back for some sessions of guidance on how to cope
with the society and how to undertake economic development steps successfully in the event of
building back their life (DD310-18J Counseling and forensic psychology, 2019) The fully
reformed can be used as examples to inspire others to follow the same steps to build back their
lives. Those who completely have no idea of starting up can be provided with support through
this forum to enable them build back their life.
Recommendations
The therapeutic service should be launched in the prison so as to help the inmates survive
the horror of their thoughts. This is because from the scenario cases of mental illness,
discouragement and depression are evident. This means the inmates can fail to be completely
integrated back into the society due to various reasons that are haunting them down. The self-
harm and suicidal attempts will only be eradicated through intense therapy provision otherwise
suicide will claim many of the inmate’s lives. Transition from prison to the community is

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difficult hence the therapy is very necessary to help the inmates in achieving it. Ways of building
up their own life will also be inculcated unto the inmates thus easy to prevent reoffending.