The paper Beyond Correctional Quackery by Latessa et al, is itself a perfect example of correctional quackery.

How do I detest thee? Let me count the ways…

The paper starts with a description of a skit from Saturday Night Live. SNL has had some amusing moments, and Steve Martin created more than one of them. But to take a skit about a medieval barber as saying anything useful about medieval history or current correctional practice is an attempt at a “gotcha!” point that fails to make a point.

The Middle Ages are now recognised as a period, not of darkness, but of unparalleled creativity, technical and artistic advances. From polyphonic music to Carolingian miniscule to the great cathedrals, international banking to the heavy plough, watermills, mechanical clocks, three crop rotation, etc, to the explicit development of the scientific method by Robert Grosseteste and Roger Bacon. To claim, as Latessa’s paper does, that there was a rejection of evidence and objective testing in favour of stupidity and superstition says a great deal about him and his associates, and nothing at all about Medieval thought and history.

Latessa was attempting to suggest that there is a similarity between this alleged darkness and refusal to consider evidence, and modern correctional practice. Quackery in corrections, he claims, is not only tolerated, but maybe even celebrated. Corrections is not professional, because training and professionalism are not encouraged.

Bollocks.

Throughout Australia custodial corrections officers are trained carefully and thoroughly. A large part of this training is in empirically validated communication and de-escalation techniques, and their basis in theory, for example, in cognitive behavioural therapy and trauma informed care. CCOs are also taught the basics of current correctional and rehabilitative theory, including RNR, and are expected to continue relevant training and education throughout their career.

Latessa resents the fact that some correctional staff are sceptical about the constantly appearing new theories from people who have never worked in a prison, or spent any meaningful time talking to either victims or offenders. He acknowledges this is often true, but says it is beside the point. It is not. It is as if you were being offered football strategies by a group of people who have never played football and have never been to a football game but have read lots of papers written by other people who have never been to a football game, and are therefore confident they are experts.

Latessa then rabbits on about how useless boot camps are as an example of how useless corrective services are. He claims there is no evidence to support boot camps, and that they are based on humiliation and threats. But boot camps are rarely used and are not a representative example of corrective thinking or practice. In addition, evidence for their effectiveness is mixed, as it is for every other rehabilitative corrective intervention. They are not based on humiliation and threats, but rather on growing physical fitness, teamwork and discipline, and consequently, developing confidence, listening skills, and the ability to work effectively with others – all of which are vital to successful life on the outside.

He then goes on to list “questionable theories of crime” he claims to have heard from corrective services managers, and which he says motivate current correctional practice. Half of his list is utterly stupid, including, for example, “we just want them to be happy” “they just need love” “they need acupuncture” etc … (it is a long list). I have worked in and around prisons for twenty-five years in total, and have never heard a correctional manager utter a single one of these absurdities. The other half are factors which, regardless of Latessa’s opinion, do need to be taken into account in day to day practice. These include “offenders lack discipline” “offenders have low self-esteem” “offenders lack long term planning skills.” Not all offenders are the same, but most CCOs would agree that these are frequent common features, and that if no attempt is made to address them, prisoners are being short-changed in their chance to succeed in building productive, socially positive lives.

The rest of the paper is essentially an extended hissy fit by academic criminologists that corrective services do not immediately adopt whatever theory is the current flavour of the month. This much is true: corrective services are slow to make change, and to adopt new theoretical models in both management and rehabilitation. This is a good thing, not a bad thing.

There is really is, if not a flavour of the month, at least a flavour of every few years when it comes to rehabilitation. There is the sudden rush of enthusiasm – Yay! We have finally come up with something that really works. Then the realisation it doesn’t really work that well, but this is someone else’s fault. Corrective services are not implementing it properly. Then a gradual loss of interest, then the new, super-dooper programme that really will work this time, and for which empirical evidence really does exist, we promise, scout’s honour.

RNR has been around for several years and is currently still the most widely implemented system in corrections worldwide. But Tony Ward’s Good Lives Model (GLM) is increasingly being used, often as a supplement to RNR. Briefly, RNR takes the brakes off by helping prisoners recognise learned scripts and behaviours which lead to crime and almost always to poverty and failed relationships, while GLM pushes the gas pedal to a better future by giving offenders a clear way to envision and plan to achieve the good life they want. Other possibilities are in the pipeline. Trauma Informed Care has significant implications for the way staff interact with prisoners (and sometimes other staff!) and shows promise when explicitly incorporated into programmes. Insights from Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) are also beginning to be used in correctional settings, in particular the insight that a successful life is largely based in the thinking, emotional and communication skills needed to navigate interpersonal and practical goals, frustrations, and temptations. Whether prisoners have the ability or willingness to learn and implement those skills is another question.

The constant flow of new theories is one reason corrective services are slow to take up academic criminology’s latest product. The other is simply that prisoners are not guinea pigs. They, along with their friends, partners, families and the wider community, are people to whom we have a duty of care.