Date of Award

2006

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

Abstract

Indiana correctional officials continually look for programs that change offender behavior, both within the correctional facility setting and subsequent to their release back into the community. The Thinking for a Change program, developed in 1997 by Bush, Glick, and Taymans is a cognitive behavioral program currently being used to affect change in adult males incarcerated within the Indiana Correctional system. This study compared Class "A" and Class "B" disciplinary write-ups received by three groups of offenders; those who completed the Thinking for a Change (Bush et al.) program and received a time cut, those who completed the Thinking for a Change (Bush et al.) program and did not receive a time cut and those who did not complete the program. The following research questions were asked: (1) Is there a difference in the number of disciplinary write-ups between offenders who completed the Thinking for a Change (Bush et al., 1997) program and received a time cut and those who did not participate in the program? (2) Is there a difference in the number of disciplinary write-ups between offenders who completed the Thinking for a Change (Bush et al.) program, did not receive a time cut, and those who did not participate in the program? (3) Is there a difference in the number of disciplinary write-ups between pre and post-test observations for each population category? (4) Is there a difference in the number of disciplinary write-ups within each category that completed the program? A quantitative analysis utilized comparisons of disciplinary write-ups for each of the three population categories identified above. A quantitative analysis using t -tests was used to assess whether any difference existed in disciplinary write-ups for each category. Completion dates for the Thinking for a Change (Bush et al., 1997) program of the sample population was used to delineate pre and post time periods for both the sample population and the control group. There were no statistically significant differences found between offenders who did not complete the Thinking for a Change (Bush et al., 1997) program and those who did, regardless of whether they received anEducational time cut or not. Statistically significant mean differences were found within the number of Class A write-ups, which represents the most serious of disciplinary infractions, and Class B write-ups, which represents a serious disciplinary infraction, for those offenders who completed the Thinking for a Change (Bush et al.) program and received anEducational time cut. Class A disciplinary write-ups had statistically higher mean write-ups during the post observation period than the write-ups observed during the prior observation period. Class B disciplinary write-ups also had statistically higher mean write-ups during the post observation period than the write-ups observed during the prior observation period. A statistically significant mean difference was also found within the number of Class A write-ups for those offenders who completed the Thinking for a Change (Bush et al.) program and received noEducational time cut. Class A disciplinary write-ups had statistically higher mean write-ups during the post observation period than the write-ups observed during the prior observation period.

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