Counseling

Community corrections have a long history of providing counseling and guidance to offenders released to the community. John Augustus, the “father of probation,” provided counseling and employment assistance to the misdemeanants released to his care and reported on their progress to the courts. This followed a general cultural concern for correction, reform, and rehabilitation. Early proponents of juvenile justice and diversion counseled juveniles and sought to provide them with better opportunities. A strong focus on the needs of female offenders early in the 20th century provided a significant counseling emphasis.

In the context of community corrections, counseling has typically taken three forms: surveillance-based counseling, intended to determine whether the offender has been fulfilling his or her commitments to the court and the community; rehabilitative counseling, aimed at helping the offender to make positive decisions about his or her life choices and personal direction; and therapeutic counseling, aimed at discovering and modifying the root causes of criminal behavior. These kinds of counseling have also been provided in three contexts: as offered by the community corrections official on a one-to-one basis; as group interventions, either in house or by contractors; and as provided by contract agencies.

Offenders can be counseled on a one-on-one basis or in a group setting, and treatment can be conducted at an offender's home or at facilities involving substance abuse treatment agencies, community mental health centers, private mental health professionals, or social service organizations.

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The early history of community corrections was marked by a powerful rehabilitative emphasis that continued until the period of civil unrest in the 1960s and 1970s. During this early period, covering about half a century (from the establishment of the first probation departments in the 1920s and 1930s), probationers were typically first-time offenders or [Page 91]minor misdemeanants in need of assistance more than surveillance. Even parolees—persons released early from prison to complete their remaining time on the streets—although viewed as more dangerous and more in need of surveillance than probationers, were provided with counseling in the hope that their lifestyles could be amended.