RESOLVE               news
RESEARCH AND EDUCATION FOR SOLUTIONS TO VIOLENCE AND ABUSE
Volume 2 Number 4
Page#6                                   December 2000

Headingly Correctional Facility
Implements Domestic Violence Unit
***
By Kim Spiers

Headingly Correctional Facility, Manitoba's provincial prison for men, has implemented the Domestic Violence Unit (DVU) to respond to the steady number of domestic violence offenders who are incarcerated for provincial time (less than two years). This new Unit was created with a similar agenda to the Sex Offenders Unit the institution employs. Designed to isolate familial abusers, the DVU serves to keep offenders in an atmosphere where the staff are trained to facilitate their unique needs. The offenders are housed separately from the general population to restrict attitudes which reinforce negative behaviour, and the staff are better able to regulate and monitor progress on a continual basis.



As a new development in corrections, staff are provided with a 9-day intensive training program by qualified staff within corrections and community agencies, to present a variety of dimensions and outlooks for the staff. The Unit itself is capable of housing 76 offenders, with an area for 12 to take part in the long-term program, as well as an area for offenders with mental health disorders (up to 16 rooms).

In placing offenders into programming groups, they are not divided according to any general characteristic. In future, however, the initial assessment these men undergo will indicate their level of awareness. This will enable then to be placed with men who are at about the same rehabilitation stage, and are housed accordingly.


The current program is adaptable to the wide range of sentences offenders may receive so that at a minimum, they will receive a 5-day, short-term program. This is designed primarily to supply information regarding offending behaviour and attitudes. Within their programming, offenders are forced to face such issues as control, including its effects on their families, as well as its development within themselves.

This program completes the pattern of specialization within the criminal justice system in Manitoba. We now have specialized teams in place from police to crown attorneys to corrections.

The long-term program focusses on developing empathy for the victim(s) and realizing non-violent methods of dealing with their anger. Some of the topics the long-term programming looks at include, but are not limited to: self-talk and awareness; recognizing warning signs; developing a personal plan for non-violence; learning about the cycle of violence; socialization; and types of abuse. Before entering this long-term program, the offenders are expected to take accountability for their actions. Dealing with men who see the use of control as an effective tool for accessing their needs puts up walls in the rehabilitation process. Many of these men do not see their non-physical abuse as violent behaviour, and labelling it such can take a lot of effort. Acknowledging their physical abuse as wrong is less abstract than labelling verbal and emotional abuse as violence. These are some of the hurdles the DVU is working to overcome in the programming.

Another hurdle which is not limited to domestic violence offenders but which is very apparent in the DVU, is the personal histories of abuse among the convicts. It is not known what percentage of offenders have been abused within their own families, however it is the view of some of the staff who work with them that it is something that affects the majority. Coping with these issues may have serious implications for dealing with ones own violent behaviour.


The author extends her gratitude to the staff at Headinglys Domestic Violence Unit for supplying the information for this story: Carlos Clark, Rick Hall, Paul Klostermaier-Starkewski, and Amanda Russell.

Previous
Index
Next