What works in therapeutic prisons : evaluating psychological change in Dovegate Therapeutic Community / Jennifer Brown, Sarah Miller, Sara Northey, Darragh O'Neill.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Aims and Overview -- 2. The "What Works" Debate and the Fit of Prison-Based Democratic TCs -- 3. Controversies, Beginnings and Workings of the Dovegate TC -- 4. The Data -- 5. Personality Disorder -- 6. Changes over Time: The Psychometric Data -- 7. Experiential Perspectives from within the TC: The Focus Groups -- 8. Attachments: The Multiple Sorting Task Procedure -- 9. After the TC: Post-Residency Questionnaire, Interviews and Psychometrics -- 10. Back in the Outside World: Case Studies of Former Residents on Release -- 11. Getting It: A Quantification of Long-Term Outcomes -- 12. Practice Issues and Research Overview.

Uniquely examining the first purpose-built prison community of its kind, HMP Dovegate Therapeutic Community, this book assesses individual prisoners' progress through therapy and provides an evidence base to support investment into prison-based therapeutic communities. Charting the process of change, the authors highlight the fundamentals required for prisoners to address their motivations and criminal patterns of behaviour, revealing that strong therapeutic alliances and willingness to ask for help as well as offering help to others are critical. The most comprehensive coverage of therapeutic communities to date, this book will be an important resource for students and practitioners working in prisons and with high-risk personality disordered offenders, providing recommendations for building the best possible environment for prisoners to enhance their self-esteem, improve their behaviour and establish skills to desist. --Book Jacket.