Inservice Training of Nonprofessional Counselors

The training of counselors who work in a correctional institution setting presents a unique set of challenges. and yet no mention of it exists in the forensic psychiatry literature. There has been some writing about psychintric intervention with prisoners (e.g .. Roth and Ervin. 197P). but for the most part. on-the-line counseling work in correctional institutions is performed by people with limited. if any, formal mental health training. Thus. counselors in prisons. houses of detention, and jails around the country fall under the rubric of "non"or "para"-professionals. The irony is that these individuals, with minimal training. have one of the most difficult populations as their clientele. Thus. inservice training is especially important in such settings. The present authors were involved in such a training program. Under the terms of a small subcontract which was given to the hospital with which we were affiliated. the first author made weekly visits to a House of Correction over a IO-month period to work with the counseling staff. while the second author coordinated the overall program with prison officials. The prison houses indi\'iduals convicted of misdemeanors and serving terms of up to ZY2 years. The mandate was to provide training and professional back-up to the counseling staff. Accordingly, the first author engaged in two major activities each week: (I) Interdewing inmates who were proving most difficult for the counselors, and talking with the individual counselor after each interview to devise strategies for dealing with the inmate in question more successfully; and (2) Conducting a 45-minute seminar for the counselors. at which a variety of issues were addressed. The intent of both activities was to increase the skills of the counselors to deal with the men to whom they were assigned. Over the course of the 10-month training program. certain guidelines for the effective training of nonprofessionals in this kind of setting became clear to us.