The premise of the program is that all people have acquired thinking and feeling habits, including underlying attitudes and beliefs, which direct and control their external behaviors… Offenders have acquired habits of thinking and feeling that reinforce patterns of criminal or violent behavior. These ways of thinking are habitual and automatic; the offenders "think without thinking."
- Offenders learn to be observers of their internal thoughts and feelings, attitudes and beliefs.
- Offenders learn to recognize how their thinking generates their criminal behaviors. They realize that the way they think is within their control.
- They are challenged to find their own new ways of thinking.
In Vermont, the program is presented to offenders in a structured group format, lasting from six months to two years, depending on the offenders' sentence lengths. In addition, all members participate in one year of community aftercare through the department's field service units. In some other sites, it is delivered in periods as short as six weeks.
Excerpts from article in July 2001 Corrections Today
