Motivating Offenders To Change: A Guide for Probation and Parole provides the reader with a valuable primer on the tenets of motivational interviewing. The authors lay out the foundations of motivational interviewing and give examples of how it can be implemented. The authors have taken care to present information in an easily digestible and commonsense style. They provide guidance while remaining cognizant of the resource and time challenges faced by probation and parole staff. The book serves as a valuable prerequisite and aid to training in the use of this effective technique for facilitating positive offender change.
Although some probation and parole staff may be unfamiliar with motivational interviewing, it is not a new approach. Motivational interviewing grew out of the substance abuse and addiction treatment fields in the 1980s. At that time, research began to show that the widely accepted confrontational approaches to dealing with addicts simply were not successful. As a result, treatment professionals began to implement strategies that recognized and encouraged autonomy, self-determination, and positive reinforcement. Their success rates began to climb. In the past 25 years, motivational interviewing has been adapted to the medical and social service fields and has now proven to be a significant tool for facilitating positive behavior change in persons with a range of addictions and others seeking to make positive changes in their lives.
This guide reminds officers that their interactions with offenders have a pivotal role in determining subsequent behavior. If criminal justice professionals rely solely on punishment and incarceration—or the threat of punishment and incarceration—they neglect the greater part of their contribution. The social and financial costs associated with repeat offender incarceration are simply too high to ignore evidence-based strategies like motivational interviewing. Treating offenders in a harsh, rigid manner may look good politically, but it does not net the results that society deserves. Deterrence may work in the short term, but empowering offenders to change will work in the long term.
The audience of the guide is intentionally broad: probation and parole officers and supervisors, juvenile officers, training directors, counselors, and others who work in adult and youth justice settings. Departments might distribute all or portions of the book as part of an orientation for new officers or before or after training in motivational interviewing, or they may simply make the guide available as a resource to those who want to improve their skills. Supervisors, in particular, may want to use the guide to become familiar with the techniques of motivational interviewing, instruct staff in specific interviewing skills, and provide ongoing supervision and quality control.
For readers who entered the field of criminal or juvenile justice believing that people can change and wanting to have a positive impact, this book should provide hope and confidence. For those who came into the field believing that behavior change is unlikely and that the primary role of an officer is to enforce conditions of supervision through rigid monitoring and punishment, this book may offer an alternative approach to supervision. Probation and parole staff can indeed have a larger role than simply enforcing conditions; they can be the impetus for positive change that increases long-term public safety.
Reprinted with permission from the National Institute of Corrections. Excerpted from Motivating Offenders To Change: A Guide for Probation and Parole. The complete publication can be downloaded from the resource section of the VJJA website: www.VJJA.org/resources.html
Walters, S.T., Clark, M.D., Gingerich, B.A., and M.L. Meltzer. June 2007. Motivating Offenders To Change: A Guide for Probation and Parole. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Corrections. NIC Accession Number 022253
