Thresholds in Delaware County, PA
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Index to This Inter Active Page

    

    Ways you Can Help

    Art Forming  ..............[Return to Cell Notes Page}

    Importance of Localized Care Taking--- (U.S. Department of Justice data)

    Crime in America 20 Year Study

    Perception Exercise

   Two ways you can help

  If you've browsed our web site a bit, especially the pages explaining the Six Steps of our program, it should be very clear that this effort requires the service of many dedicated people, roughly 70-75 each year.  So please ponder whether you might have some free time to help out with administrative duties or teaching from time to time.

  Equally important, we really chop down trees with all the paperwork we give our clients.  So virtually any financial  contribution you could make would be a big help.   Please consider making a charitable donation in support of our goal of teaching decision making and problem solving skills to inmates re-entering society.  As one of our teachers recently put it, "Even $2.50 will assure one client gets a study guide for the next 6-week cycle."     Help us help others.

 

WE ARE:

Thresholds in Delaware County

P.O. Box 114

Thornton, PA 19373

 

Phone: 610-459-9384   E-Mail:  Decision@ThresholdsDelco.org

 
Art Forming

Art Forming is a series of questions posed in response to the reading of a text, hearing a song or music, or viewing a painting or photograph.  The questions vary slightly in relation to the media presented.  But all art form sessions take the responder though the six stages of decision making taught in Thresholds.
Study the photograph at the right for a few moments, then nurture your decision making abilities by viewing the questions in the scroll box below.  Hold your answers in mind. (You cannot activate the screen to key in your response.)  There are no wrong responses, which is a vital training component of the exercise. .

Art forming is practiced both one-on-one and in group sessions.  In group sessions everyone must answer, and each answer must be unique...as we each also are.
 

On The Importance of Localized Care Taking

 

It is estimated that more than one in every 100 adults in the United States will serve time in jail or prison; that’s an all-time high.  Here is a recent analysis of prison populations.

USA and territories. Incarcerated population Number of inmates in 2008

Total                                     2,424,279

Federal and state prisons  1,518,559

Territorial prisons                     13,576

Local jails                                785,556

Immigration CE facilities           9,957

Military facilities                          1,651

Jails in Indian country                 2,135

Juvenile facilities                       92,845

    Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States

     There are over 100 national and international affiliates that are associated with coordinating and publicizing the efforts of their member organizations in the  world wide effort to rehabilitate prison inmates.  Thresholds, in whatever states it operates is organized and focused on local inmate problems and solutions.  Indeed, according to the U.S. Dept of Justice, local governments spend more on criminal justice than state governments or the federal government.  See accompanying graph.
 

 

Source:

Justice Expenditure and Employment Extracts

Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice

http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/glance/expgov.cfm

The Thresholds goal is to train them in decision making so they can live productively and not make the mistakes that will return them to jail.

Note: Justice Bureau Data in graph does not include intergovernmental expenditures such as federal grants; but these dollars are included as direct expenditures by the recipient government when they are spent for salaries, supplies, and so on.

Crime In America Study    ......The Up Hill Battle

 

 

Obtaining statistics on the effectiveness of inmate rehabilitation programs is very difficult, and always controversial.   However, here is one Internet posting that spans a 20 year study which is worth considering.  Note especially the stress on teaching “decision making skills,” which is the main mission of Thresholds.

 

            <<   The research involves “Cognitive Behavioral Treatment” or an attempt to rearrange the thinking patterns of criminal offenders in prison or upon release and yes, there really are a lot of people caught up in the  criminal justice system who need to be taught basic decision making stills.  Results: 

                      Without treatment 94 percent of offenders were rearrested

                       With treatment 81 percent of offenders were rearrested

                       Without treatment 82 percent returned to prison

                       With treatment 61 percent  returned to  prison.  >>

   

 

Here is the web source site  (CrimeinAmerica.net)  It contains a wide variety of statistics and discussions.

http://crimeinamerica.net/2010/03/18/20-year-prison-study%E2%80%94treatment-works-crime-statistics/

 

  

 
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Perception Exercise

            

 

Back to Six Steps

 Study the black and white portrait in  the left side panel.  What do you see?

When you change your thinking you change your perception.

We see a young lady looking away, if we think of the necklace at bottom center.  But we see an old women partially facing us, if we think of that necklace as her closely closed lips.

No matter how often you have seen this, it still requires a deliberate effort to control your perceptions.  Thresholds teaches this in group meetings, because our clients must be reminded to think more clearly in all situations. Also, we make it  a group activity because its lots of fun as the inmates try  to help each other see more clearly..

Philosophers wrestling with perception problems for centuries put it this way: Quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur.  Whatever is received is received according to the disposition of the receiver. Thresholds works to improve the disposition of inmates as they re-enter society.

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Send mail to Decision@ThresholdsDelco.org with questions or comments about this web site.