Behaviour modification:

• Token economy


  based on operant conditioning

  • Within the walls of a prison desirable behaviour ie avoiding confrontation prisoners are given a token each time they perform it
  • Behaviours and rewards would be made clear to the prisoners before the programme is implemented
  • Emphasised that non-compliance may result in the tokens being removed (punishment)
  • Tokens are not rewarding in themselves but derive their value from their association with a reward and thus are called secondary reinforcers
  • Can be exchanged for a phone call to a loved one (primary reinforcers they are directly rewarding)
• Designing and using a token economy

  Operationalise target behaviours:

  • target behaviour is operationalised by breaking it down into component parts
  • For instance, the target behaviour may be improved interaction with other prison inmates
  • This may be broken down into not touching another prisoner as you pass them, speaking politely to others, etc.

  These 'units' of behaviour should be objective and measurable and agreed with prison staff and inmates in advance
• Designing and using a token economy:

  Scoring system

  • Staff and prisoners should also be made aware of the scoring system and how much each particular behaviour is worth
  • Behaviours are hierarchical that some are regarded as more demanding than others so receive greater rewards

  IE improving interactions with other inmates we might award more tokens to working co-operatively on a group task than not swearing

  • Some may award tokens directly whereas others may award points which are then converted to tokens
  • The recommendation is that reinforcements should outnumber punishments by 4:1
• Designing and using a token economy:

  Train staff:

  • It is important that prison staff are given full training in order to implement the token economy system successfully
  • Training may involve several hours for a number of weeks
  • The aim is to standardise the procedures so that all prison staff are rewarding the same behaviours in the same way
  • Staff must also record when they have awarded tokens so the progress of individual prisoners can be assessed.