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72 Fed. Probation 43 (2008)
Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions: Where They Come from and What They Do

handle is hein.journals/fedpro72 and id is 115 raw text is: September 2008 43 CognAitieBeair a Intevetions:lr Wher The Com Fro an Wha TheyaDo THE NEWS IS OUT and it's not good, but it comes as no surprise to corrections officials. Presently, more than one in every one hun- dred adults in the United States is confined in local jails and state or federal correctional facilities (Warren, 2008). The United States incarcerates more of its citizens than any oth- er country in the world. At the end of 2006, there were over five million adults under the supervision of federal, state, or local proba- tion or parole authorities (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2007). Due to the rising incarcera- tion rates, many states face significant finan- cial shortfalls and must make tough decisions regarding their correctional populations. In 2005, the State of Washington focused its at- tention on the long-term fiscal consequences of prison expansion. As a result, the State Legislature directed the Washington State In- stitute for Public Policy (Institute) to explore options to imprisonment. After a thorough re- view of existing programs and research, the Institute identified several Evidence Based Practices (EBP), such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), that might be effective in re- ducing recidivism, thus alleviating the need to build additional prisons (Washington State Institute for Public Policy, 2006). Several other states have come to real- ize that non-violent offenders may be bet- ter served under community supervision rather than incarcerated. According to The Pew Center on the States (2008), No poli- cy maker would choose this path if it meant sacrificing public safety. But gradually, some states are proving that deploying a broad range of sanctions can protect communities, punish lawbreakers, and conserve tax dollars for other pressing public needs (p. 4). This may reduce the overall inmate population, but community correction agencies may see an increase in numbers of individuals under some type of community-based supervision. Correctional administrators continue to seek low-cost, effective treatment interventions to assist in reducing recidivism and stopping the criminal justice system's revolving door, which has become the hallmark of correc- tions in the United States. As noted by the Washington State In- stitute for Public Policy (2006) and many other researchers (Lipsey, Landenberger, & Wilson, 2007; Milkman & Wanberg, 2007; Przybylski, 2008; Pearson, Lipton, Cleland, & Yee, 2002; Wilson, Bouffard, & MacK- enzie, 2005; Landenberger & Lipsey, 2005), CBT is one evidence-based intervention which shows promise in reducing recidivism. The purpose of this paper is to acquaint the reader with CBT, its history, and to explore several programs that have proven to be ef- fective in reducing recidivism. This paper only broadly touches on several of the im- portant researchers in the fields of cognitive therapy, behavioral therapy, and CBT. There are many others who have had an impact on these therapies and further exploration on the part of the reader is recommended. Cognitive Therapy Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is not a single method of psychotherapy; rather, CBT is an umbrella term for therapies with many similar- ities. CBT is a marriage of sorts between social Chris Hansen Chief U.S. Probation Officer District of Nevada learning theory, cognitive therapy, and behav- ioral therapy, all of which initially grew from experimental psychology (Weishaar, 1993). From the cognitive therapist's perspec- tive, an individual's personality is formed by central values that have developed early in life as a result of factors in the individual's environment. These factors serve as the basis for the way the individual codes, categorizes, and evaluates their experiences and the stimu- li they encounter. Cognitive therapists believe that psychological problems stem from faulty learning, making incorrect assumptions as the result of inadequate or incorrect information, and not being able to adequately distinguish between imagination and reality (Freeman & Dattilio, 1992). Early views of cognition shaping one's view of the world came from early Greek phi- losophers including Plato. Philosophers during the seventeenth and eighteenth century viewed the world around the concept of the mind con- trolling reality (Milkman & Wanberg, 2005). In the nineteenth century cognitive therapy was practiced by two early psychologists, Wundt and James, who defined their discipline as the science of mental life (Allen, 2006). Wundt and James' research centered around cogni- tion such as the way individuals perceived, stored, and used information. Allen (2006) notes, The methodology involved subjects trained in introspection, who examined their own cognitive processes during experimental tasks. This phase of research was overtaken by the behaviourist framework during the 1920s, largely due to difficulties in demonstrating the validity of self-report data generated by intro-

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