FAITHS THROUGHCARE PROGRAM COMMUNITY EVALUATION: CUSTODY TO COMMUNITY TRACK
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2022-08
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Abstract
Entities within the world of criminal justice share a unified goal to reduce recidivism amongst the justice-involved population. Research has shown a multitude of criminogenic factors and reentry barriers that must be addressed through an effective therapeutic process in order to reduce recidivism rates, support desistance, and to undertake the social work grand challenge of promoting Smart Decarceration. To address recidivism in San Bernardino County in direct partnership with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department (SBCSD), the Family Attachment Intervention Through Healing Solutions (FAITHS) Throughcare Program was launched to provide rehabilitative programming to the justice-involved population. Community engagement to guide FAITHS interventions has been a culmination of input from the justice-involved population, SBCSD, and community stakeholders over the last several years. In addition to input from relevant parties, FAITHS is driven by social work theories, Throughcare principles, and a theoretical model conceptualized by the co-founders of FAITHS. Adhering to the aforementioned theoretical elements and synthesizing holistic rehabilitative programming with reentry partnerships yielded from community engagement led to the social innovation of the Custody to Community Track (C2C). C2C involves providing various types of rehabilitative programming beginning in custody and continuing in reentry community programming while the participant is released on ankle-monitoring, in addition to direct engagement from reentry resource partners. This case study evaluates the impact of C2C on participants’ therapeutic experiences through the 12-item Working Alliance Inventory-Short Revised (WAI-SR). Analyzed through IBM SPSS descriptive frequencies, C2C participants (n=5) had an average score of 3.6 or higher on all WAI-SR items across the assessment’s Task, Goal, and Bonds scales regarding the therapeutic alliance between the participant and FAITHS facilitator. This study will continue with future C2C cohorts as further research is needed to determine the effects of pilot C2C programming on therapeutic experiences of participants. C2C has produced a strong therapeutic alliance so far with most participants and may lead to being a sustainably viable option for recidivism reducing programming within the world of criminal justice and the field of social work.
Description
A capstone project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Social Work
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Keywords
Social Work, Law Enforcement, Criminology