Proposing Forgiveness Therapy for those in Prison: An Intervention Strategy for Reducing Anger and Promoting Psychological Health

Abstract

We propose a novel approach to corrections, both in maximum security prisons for adults and juvenile detention centers for adolescents. It is our hypothesis that unjust treatment from others can lead to inner pain, which can lead to anger. Unresolved anger can deepen and linger, turning to what we call excessive anger, compromising one's psychological health and behavior. Excessive anger can turn to rage (very intense, potentially violent anger) which can fuel crime, a lack of cooperation within the prison system, and increased recidivism rates. When the excessive anger is caused by unjust behavior from others, prior to a person's crime, conviction, and imprisonment, then we can reduce and even eliminate the excessive anger through the empirically-verified treatment of Forgiveness Therapy. It is rare, in our experience, for prison rehabilitation to have those in prison look backward, toward the injustices that happened to them prior to the crime. When they are given the chance to do this, they have the opportunity, perhaps for the first time, to confront the injustice and to heal from the pain and anger resulting from the unjust actions against them that might have happened years ago, even in childhood. Forgiveness Therapy may be one of the few existing mental health approaches which offer the opportunity to be free of excessive anger, perhaps for the first time in the person's life. Research on Forgiveness Therapy with an imprisoned sample of youth in Korea is described as are two individual cases of men within a maximum security facility.

Childhood Victimization, Recent Injustice, Anger, and Forgiveness in a Sample of Imprisoned Male Offenders

“…In this respect, offenders seem to be least ready to embrace forgiveness (Allen, Phillips, Roff, Cavanaugh, & Day, 2008; Day et al, 2006). While they may be the ones who, due to broken relationships in their past and present life, most need to practice empathy and forgiveness (Enright et al, 2016), they may also be least able to bear pain and regulate negative emotions. Research shows that offenders not only lack the capacity to empathize with others (Jolliffe & Farrington, 2004) but also are more likely to develop biased and deficient patterns of decoding of social cues, which may, in turn, result in increased levels of hostile attribution and aggressive behavior (Dodge, 2006).…”

“…However, despite the growing recognition that treatment interventions for offenders should focus on the effects of early life experiences (Day, Bryan, Davey, & Casey, 2006; Reavis, Looman, Franco, & Rojas, 2013; Roberton, Daffern, & Bucks, 2014), few studies explore ways in which offenders could be helped to recognize and cope with the sources of stress in their present lives and reprocess past hurts. Especially understudied is the role of forgiveness (Enright et al, 2016).…”

Who Can Get More Benefits? Effects of Mindfulness Training in Long-Term and Short-Term Male Prisoners

“…Khodayarifard, Shokoohi-Yekta, and Hamot (2010) investigated the effect of individual and group cognitive behavior therapy among male prisoners and found significant improvement in their psychological symptoms. Enright et al (2016) found that forgiveness therapy was effective in reducing anger and promoting mental health. Gold et al (2014) adopted music therapy among prisoners and found significant reduction in anxiety and depression.…”

Effect of mindfulness-based training on aggression and empathy of adolescents at the juvenile correction and rehabilitation center

“…Other criminologists have also highlighted the potential significance of empathy in relation to delinquency; the ''ability to imagine the distress of another may inhibit harmful behavior'' [8]. Programs designed to increase empathy in offenders are regular components of many prison treatment programs [9], especially those designed for sexual offenders. The assumption that recidivism can be reduced by increasing empathy is very common.…”