298 1! Corrections and Prison Practicesof approximately 55—65 individuals compared to the regular officers' caseloads of
approximately 200. Due to the case management model, the MRO Unit officers
take a much more active role in their probationers' postrelease services. It Richard,
from the case illustration, had been assigned to such a unit, then more appropri-
ate services may have been found for him, and he might have remained in. the
community instead of being sent to prison.
The programs that have been described all focus on aspects such as habilitation
and vocational and social skills. Yet, are these skills important or even necessary for
an inmate with mental retardation? A study conducted by Munson (1994) suggested
that there are three important processes that take place once an offender is released
to a community. These include beginning an appropriate occupation, selecting a
home, and developing appropriate and positive leisure skills. He hypothesized that
offenders who were provided career development training would score significantly
higher than a control group on self-esteem and participation and commitment in the
worker, hornemaker, and leisure roles. His participants were youthful offenders who
had mental retardation and/or learning disabilities as well as behavioral problems.
He found that the offenders in the group who received career development training
increased their self-esteem, while it decreased for those in the control group. Also,
participation and commitment in the homemaker role increased more for the group
receiving training than the control group. Although commitment to the worker and
leisure roles did not show a significant difference between groups, the training did
increase the offenders' commitment to finding and maintaining a home, and it did
increase their self-esteem. These two benefits could provide enough incentive for
released offenders to remain in the community and avoid criminal activities, which
is the ultimate goal of most training programs.
Bowker and Schweid (1992) provide another reason for implementing special-
ized programs within prisons. Offenders with mental retardation, such as Richard
in the case illustration, often become victims of physical attacks and psychological
abuse. They also can be manipulated and blamed for incidents by more intelligent
inmates. This type of behavior only becomes worse with overcrowding, and many
prisons are overcrowded. If separate units are not created for those with mental
retardation, then they must be housed with the mentally or physically ill, where
they will not receive the types of services they need.
Placing inmates with mental retardation in the general population of a prison can
create many conflicts. If the inmate breaks the rules, as Richard continuously did,
then correctional officers may place him or her in disciplinary isolation because
guards are not concerned with why the prisoner broke the rules, only that the
person did. The stress of the punishment may only frustrate the mentally retarded
inmate further, and he or she may verbally or physically act out this frustration
because of a lack of understanding about what is happening. The aspects of prison
life may actually place the mentally retarded prisoner at risk, despite attempts to
help the person (J. N. Hall, 1992). This is why it is so important to develop separate
units and programs for this population.