Contractual agreements and contingency management procedures were used in an attempt to increase the productivity of 16 prison inmates studying programmed educational materials. Programmed instruction requires that S respond in a verbal (written) manner to specially constructed questions and/or statements. A question or statement and its corresponding response constitute a “frame.” Ss agreed to complete a progressively greater number of frames per week during an E-management phase. Work was assigned daily by means of a performance contract. During a subsequent self-management phase Ss contracted with themselves to produce more frames than they had completed during the baseline. Following completion of a unit of work during the E-management and self-management phases, S was allowed a 15-min. period in which he could either select an item from a reinforcement menu or opt to return to the study area. Under contingency-management procedures Ss successfully completed the work assigned at first by E and later by themselves. Increased amounts of work were accompanied by greater work efficiency; total time in the work area per day decreased, and the number of frames completed per hour increased. Test performance was better during the contingency-management phases than in the baseline phase.
Two experiments were conducted (1) to explore the application of token reinforcement procedures in a maximum security correctional institution for adult male felons and (2) to determine to what extent the reinforcement procedures disrupted the day-to-day lives of inmate participants. In Experiment 1, an expanded reversal design revealed that the combination of praise and token reinforcement was more effective than the combinations of praise and noncontingent token award or direct commands on four common institutional activities. The latter two combinations were not found to be any more effective than praise alone. Experiment 2, which also employed a reversal design, indicated that the high levels of performance observed during the token reinforcement phases of Experiment 1 could be attained without subjecting participants to undue hardship in the form of increased deprivation of either social intercourse or the opportunity to engage in recreational and entertainment activities. Client safeguards are discussed in detail.DESCRIPTORS
A correctional officer training program in the principles and applications of the social learning model is described. An assessment of the effects of the training program indicated that correctional officers can master the requisite skills of the behavioral technician and can successfully apply these, under supervision, in a systematic behavior change project. In addition, the trained officers, in comparison to nontrained peers, increased both their total number and proportion of positive interactions with inmates. Finally, the trained officers indicated that the techniques they learned assisted them in their work with the inmates, and the inmates indicated that the officers who had received training appeared to have improved in general caliber as well as become less punitive and more concerned with the welfare of inmates. The implications of these findings for comprehensive rehabilitation programming within a correctional institution are discussed.
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