Let’s Take the Stigma Out of Employing People with a History of Behavioral Issues

Employment can be an important re-entry method and strong protective factor for people who have committed an offense or with a history of behavior issues. Yet many employers are unwilling to hire these individuals. By increasing employers’ understanding, we can promote inclusive hiring and healthy workplaces.

This webinar features an open dialogue with Working Fields, a staffing agency that specializes in helping people eliminate barriers to employment. We will discuss hiring people with past behavioral issues, address common misconceptions, and tackle questions from Working Fields employer partners.

Building Hope and Motivation with Suicidal Clients in Criminal Justice

Working with justice-involved adults brings many challenges, among which are assessing the likelihood of future harmful acts and forming trusting relationships with clients in order to help them become productive members of society. One challenge that is often overlooked by those working with justice-involved clients is understanding and intervening when clients become suic

Applying Circles of Support and Accountability with People Who Access Child Sexual Exploitation Material

Circles of Support & Accountability (CoSA) is a restorative justice-informed initiative intended to assist in the post-release community integration of persons with sexual offense histories after periods of incarceration or other detention. It uses community volunteers trained and supported by locally employed professionals and experts. Since its inception, CoSA has been consistently shown to significantly reduce harm while increasing the likelihood of successful integration of participants into the community. In September 2020, Circles UK launched an innovative new program, Circles ReBoot, which helps individuals who have accessed Child Sexual Exploitation Material, who are typically at high risk to persist in offending and who have high levels of treatment need.

Applying a Neuroscience and Psychosocial Development Framework to Testifying in Juvenile Cases

In this webinar, Tom Leversee will present a framework for expert witnesses that focuses on brain science, developmental age/crime trajectories, and psychosocial maturity and desistance.    

Mental health professionals in the juvenile justice system frequently serve as expert witnesses in court cases in which juveniles face the possibility of being prosecuted as adults. Many youths have been directly entered into the adult court system due to the seriousness of their offense(s), w

Traumatic Brain Injuries in Correctional Settings

Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) due to adverse childhood experiences and other incidents are common in justice-involved settings. The extant literature is filled with calls for attention to this issue. In this webinar, we will discuss the prevalence of TBI. We will review the existing research related to TBI in correctional settings and highlight systemic issues and possible barriers to effective identification, treatment and monitoring. Dawn Pflugradt and Danielle Ciccone-Coutre will propose solutions for improving our responses to incarcerated people with TBI once they’ve identified them.

The Criminal Justice System’s Need for Better Understanding of Clients with Autism Spectrum Disorders

In this webinar with Dr. Spence, a world-renown expert in the treatment and assessment of justice-involved people with autism, we will examine the ways criminal justice systems fall short in ensuring the safety and effective rehabilitation of this vulnerable and challenging population. It’s a much-needed conversation that will shine light on how we can improve outcomes. 

How Can We Reform the Criminal Justice System?

In 1967, President Johnson’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice outlined a massive set of recommendations (involving law enforcement, courts, corrections, etc.). Unfortunately, many of these recommendations were never implemented, and few actual reforms have occurred. The largest issue has been the sheer volume of traffic through the legal system (often resulting in incarceration) and the culture of control and punishment, which are largely untouched by the reform efforts. The volume can be addressed by more citations which require fines and fees – or restorative justice – for misdemeanor offenses (broken-window types of offenses). Moving from public safety approaches to public health models will also alter the reach of the justice system; this is evident in the legal system’s handling of drug- and alcohol-related issues. This webinar will provide a brief exploration of these and related issues.

A Look Inside Adolescent Drug Courts: Motivation and Beyond

This webinar will explore the evolution of juvenile drug treatment courts. Where the legal system has too failed many who enter it, practices that focus on client engagement and behavior change (such as Motivational Interviewing) have improved outcomes. Jennifer Wyatt and Margaret Soukup are the authors of Motivational Interviewing Skills in Action for Juvenile Drug Treatment Court Teams and will share highlights from that publication that are specific to youth and applicable to other settings. Attendees will receive a download of this document.

The Compassion Prison Project: A Conversation with Fritzi Horstman

The Compassion Prison Project began as the brainchild of award-winning producer Fritzi Horstman, whose own childhood trauma helped shape its conception. Over the course of several months in 2019-2020, Fritzi and a dedicated team of facilitators and volunteers partnered with incarcerated men at the Kern Valley State Prison (KVSP), a maximum-security prison in Central California. Together, they created powerful tools to address and heal from childhood trauma. The project is often known for its documentaries, “Step Inside the Circle” and “Honor Yard.” This webinar conversation explores the evolution of this project and its core values of compassion, humanity, accountability, nonviolence, generosity, and equity.

Webinar – The Right Relationship in Corrections Can Reduce Risk: Here’s How

The jury is back in on what kinds of approaches can help reduce crime, make our communities safer, and build better lives along the way. Newly published findings report that 45% of all state prison admissions in the United States are due to violations of probation or parole—by way of new offenses or technical violations. Community corrections has become a paradox, not only failing in its mission to divert and remediate, but making matters worse.