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70 Fed. Probation 38 (2006)
Motivational Interviewing for Probation Officers: Tipping the Balance toward Change

handle is hein.journals/fedpro70 and id is 38 raw text is: 38 FEDERAL PROBATION Michael D. Clark, Director, Center for Strength-Based Strategies Scott Walters, University of Texas School of Public Health Ray Gingerich, Retired Texas State Probation Officer Melissa Meltzer, University of Texas School of Public Health MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING (Mill- er & Rolnick, 1991) is a way of talking with people about change that was first developed for the field of addictions but has broadened and become a favored approach for use with populations in a variety of settings (Burke, Arkowitz & Dunn, 2002). It has been intro- duced to criminal justice in general (Birgden, 2004; McMurran, 2002; Farrall, 2002) and probation efforts specifically (Walters, Clark, Gingerich, Meltzer, forthcoming, In Press; Clark, 2005; Ginsburg et.al., 2002; Harper & Hardy, 2000; Miller, 1999). It represents a turn to moving probation departments into the business of behavior change (Clark, 2006). This article will suggest several ben- efits from the importation of Motivational Interviewing into probation practice. This article posits eight reasons to consider the Motivational Interviewing approach: Why would probation officers want to use Motivational Interviewing in their day-to-day work? 1. Motivational interviewing aligns with evidence-based practice. 2. It can help the officer get back into the game of behavior change. 3. It suggests effective tools for handling resistance and can keep difficult situa- tions from getting worse. 4. It keeps the officer from doing all the work, and makes interactions more change-focused. Interactions are more change-focused when the officer understands where change comes from. Change-focused interactions place the responsibility for behavior change on the offender. * Motivational interactions create an appetite for change in offenders by amplifying their ambivalence. 5. Motivational Interviewing changes who does the talking. 6. It helps prepare offenders for change. - Ask questions that raise interest 7. Motivational Interviewing changes what is talked about. * Eliciting change talk (self-motiva- tional speech). 8. It allows officers to enforce probation orders and deliver sanctions without leaving a motivational style. Addressing lying and deception * Addressing violations and sanctions 1. Motivational Interviewing Aligns With Evidence-Based Practice Go back beyond the last two decades and you'll find that criminal justice suffered from a lack of proven methods for reducing offender recidivism (Andrews & Bonta, 2003). Today, it is almost unimaginable that our field ever operated without practice methods being studied and empirically validated through rigorous science. Science-based methods for probation work continue through the National Institute of Corrections Evidence- Based Policy and Practice initiative (NIC, 2004). This article discusses Motivational Interviewing, a practice included among the eight principles of effective interventions to reduce the risk of recidivism. Within these eight principles, the second principle of evi- dence-based practice cites: 2. Enhance Intrinsic Motivation- Research strongly suggests that moti- vational interviewing techniques, rather than persuasion tactics, effectively enhance motivation for initiating and maintaining behavior change. (p. 1) This article attempts to lend substance to that recommendation by reviewing possible benefits offered to probation staff from the integration of motivational strategies into community corrections. 2. It Can Help The Officer Get Back Into The Game of Behavior Change Historically, motivation has been viewed as a more-or-less fixed characteristic of offend- ers. That is, an offender usually presented with a certain motivational profile and until he was ready to make changes, there was not much you could do to influence his chances on probation. Under this model, the probation officer becomes an enforcer of the *Article content has been adapted from the forthcoming NIC monograph, Talking with Offenders about Change: Integrating Motivational Strategies into Community Corrections. Volume 70 Number 1

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