Anger Management

This course aims to increase participants' recognition of anger and to build awareness of the underlying feelings behind aggressive or violent behaviour. Clients will learn that anger is an essential emotion, and needs to be expressed in an appropriate fashion.

Criteria
Any man over the age of 18, who recognizes anger as a problem in a variety of relationships and circumstances, is eligible as a self-referral, outside agencies or justice personal. Men with charges pending will be considered for the program. Participants may come into anger management with domestic violence charges but the Society will not write letters for family court. They might also be expected to take specific domestic violence courses. All candidates must have an intake interview prior to acceptance.

• $40 for 7 three-hour sessions

"The strategies of self-management, positive self-talk and social beliefs, values and education are the most powerful factors to support my anger control. The anger can be managed when I am sober, courteous and respectful of all people I come into contact with," commented one participant in the program.

Employment Assistance

Assistance is offered to individuals, who have been involved with the justice system, in acquiring the skills and tools necessary to find suitable employment.

Criteria – This program is available to anyone involved with the criminal justice system, presently or in the past, and their family members.

• No cost
• Employers, who are open to those with a criminal record, are invited to contact us directly.

As Rudy Von Massow, a 20-year volunteer with the Society explains, "I don’t present men with the job. I tell them how to look for a job; I prepare them. When one man asked me to rewrite his resume, I called to check the telephone number of an old employer and he offered to interview the man for the job. He got it! Those experiences make my efforts worthwhile."

Restorative Resolutions

Restorative Resolutions is a community-based sentencing program based upon restorative justice principles. It seeks to hold offenders accountable for their behaviour in the community, to be sensitive to the needs and concerns of victims, and to encourage members of the community to become involved in the criminal justice process. The program marries restorative principles with sound intervention practices. Compassionate confrontation is used as a tool. Among successful graduates of the program, recidivism has been reduced. Restorative Resolutions delivers two cognitive restructuring programs, teaching both men and women who have been in trouble with the law to think differently and to change their behaviour. Criminal Thinking Errors/Victim Awareness is for men and Moving On is for women. As well, Restorative Resolutions offers a thirteen week entrepreneurial training program for both men and women.

Criteria
Offenders facing at least six months incarceration, who accept responsibility for their behaviour, who are willing and able to repair harm to both the community and the victim or victims, and who are willing to make pro-social lifestyle changes, may become clients. All clients undergo an intensive screening process.

One client reflects on her experience, "Going to jail would have been easier for me because I would not have had to be accountable for what I’d done. Restorative Resolutions challenged me to be honest with myself and others for the first time in my life. They forced me to figure out the real reasons why I did what I did, whom I had hurt, what I needed to do to fix it and most important, how not to fall back into that destructive pattern. My victims now receive money from me on a monthly basis."

Intake Service

This service is offered to all clients who are unsure of what resources are available to them while they are incarcerated or after they have been released. It lets them know how they can use their time in jail productively rather than simply "doing time". Staff and volunteers offer support and guidance, often referring clients to community programs and specific assistance provided by the Society.

Pre-Employment Skills Program (PESP)

Assistance is offered to inmates in using their time to acquire the skills and tools necessary to find suitable employment after they have been released. Staff and volunteers encourage inmates to think of where they would like to be in five years and to identify what training they need to help them achieve these goals.

Criteria – This program is available to anyone in the provincial institutions.

Literacy

Using workbooks developed by the John Howard Society of Manitoba, the program provides students with an opportunity to improve their reading, writing and math skills. It promotes the educational, social and emotional development of its students through a respectful and supportive learning partnership.

Criteria — There are no educational criteria for this program. Prior to participation, clients are given an initial assessment and must complete a review to determine their literacy level.

“"More than literacy and gaining skills, the program is supportive and provides a friendly face to men and women in custody at the Winnipeg Remand Centre. They know we are coming down to help them. It gives them a leg up toward moving on after they get out," says Shauna Fay, Literacy Coordinator.

Literacy Workbook Series/Harm Reduction Series

The twenty-six workbooks in this series cover a number of topics such as AIDS and HIV; Gangs: Learning to Live without Them; Hep C: Your Life Your Liver; and Hurting People: A Victim Awareness Manual. The material is relevant and understandable. Series topics are based on observable medical and social needs within the community.

• A list of available workbooks and prices is at the John Howard Society of Manitoba’s website.

After one inmate completed the workbook Hurting People, a Victim Awareness Manual, he wrote, "You get the idea that it is more than just me involved. Real people were hurt. My crime of murder impacted a lot of people I had never stopped to think about. Learning about the tragedy of crime and the impact it has on so many people, there’s no way I'd want to commit any crime again!"

Parenting

This program encourages participants to explore some of the parenting messages they received growing up and question how those messages affect their parenting.  It encourages the development of new parenting skills through the use of games and role playing as well as highlighting the effect the participants' behaviour has on their children.

Criteria — Any man interested in learning new parenting skills to help ensure his kids do not end up, like him, behind bars, is eligible.