ABSTRACT
Treatment with criminal justice (CJ) involved individuals is difficult. They are often resistant to change, paranoid, and skeptical of motives and intent of service providers, presenting a myriad of complicated issues that are persistent and not easily changed. Therapeutic programs and mental health services have proven effective for helping CJ involved individuals achieve more positive outcomes, including improved personal functioning and reduced recidivism. It has also been recommended that treatments with those in CJ system will be most effective when services are simplistic and utilize common, everyday learning heuristics, and when CJ involved individuals are required to overlearn treatment content so new behaviors become an ingrained part of their daily behavioral repertoire. Changing Lives and Changing Outcomes utilizes each of these strategies to maximize treatment gains for criminal justice involved persons with mental illness (CJ-PMI). Therapist structured the program to integrate cognitive-behavioral therapy, including structured learning activities, with an interpersonal process-oriented approach to group psychotherapy to maximize participant learning.
