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Rehabilitation, Recidivism, and Realism: Evaluating Violence Reduction Programs in Prison

Middlesex University

JOHN PITTS

University of London

There has been a growing concern about responding to violent young people within the prison setting. One of the dominant responses has been to "get tough" by introducing more authoritarian and militaristic regimes, but this strategy has become increasingly identified as being counterproductive and expensive. An alternative approach that is gaining ground, particularly in Canada and the United Kingdom, is the development of Cognitive Skills Programs, which are designed to encourage offenders to "think straight" and thereby to "go straight" and become more law abiding. Although these approaches have been subject to extensive evaluation, it is suggested that the forms of evaluation employed are flawed and that there are serious limitations to using recidivist rates as the principle measure of the success of these programs.

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