Practice innovation: design, development, and implementation of a positive psycology psycho-education curriculum with remand prisoners

This paper reports the design, development and implementation of an innovative psycho-educational curriculum that is currently being offered to remand prisoners in South Australia. It is innovative both in relation to the lack of programs that are available to this cohort of prisoners and in terms of the application of positive psychology ideas and methods. The initial stages of program delivery have confirmed that engaging remandees in positive psycho-education increases openness, motivation and readiness to try new ways of looking at their life events and increase their adaptability to problem solving strategies. Therefore, this paper highlights the practical possibility that a psycho-educational curriculum may serve as a link to a longer term educational engagement and rehabilitation pathways for those who subsequently receive either a custodial sentence or a community based sanction. It also poses an important question for further research whether remandees who are released without conviction could benefit from completing this psycho-education program in terms of their future risk of further criminal justice system involvement