ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews application of social learning approaches to helping delinquents change in institutions. One of the first applications of behavior modification to delinquents in institutions was that of V. O. Tyler. In this case study he utilized tokens to radically improve the academic performance of one juvenile inmate. A second major project applying social learning approaches to juvenile corrections has been the program in the California Youth Authority (CYA). The staff of one large CYA institution was trained in behavior modification; the staff of a second was trained in transactional analysis. Increasingly in the 1970s and 1980s, behavioral contracting has been utilized inside institutions. This had been more common in clinics, in families, and in probation. The most comprehensive behavioral training program for correctional officers has been carried out over several years by John McKee and Michael Milan at the Draper Correctional Center in Elmore, Alabama.
