The most recent figures place the number of juvenile arrests in the United States at 2.11 million. (OJJDP, 2009). In some states, children as young as 10 years old are incarcerated for violent offenses. Crowded juvenile facilities are often unable to meet the needs of these large numbers of youth. The cost to treat offenders within long-term…

Described is an Operant Conditioning-Token Economy Program, teaching patients to be responsible for their own behavior, to make choices, and to be motivated to change. The program was instigated with mentally ill patients in a state hospital and was later used with institutionalized mentally handicapped groups. After two years, only four of the…

Eight papers report on the project at Austin State School, funded by a Hospital Improvement (HIP) grant, which used a multidisciplinary team to implement socialization programs for institutionalized mildly retarded persons exhibiting socially inept behavior. Two papers consider social rehabilitation and the task of trying to move residents out…

A retrospective evaluation of restrictive behavior programs in a state residential facility for persons with mental retardation found beneficial behavioral effects. The behavior programs reviewed utilized isolation timeout, exclusion timeout, response cost, prone restraint, seated restraint, timeout device, nonexclusion timeout, standing…

Token management procedures, initiated in a community residential home for six reatarded subjects, were designed to affect social behaviors and personal care habits. Two delivery formats were used, one in which prior announcement of reinforcement contingencies was explained, a second in which target behaviors were consequated as they occurred. The…

A modified cooperative learning methodology was implemented with 12 boys at a residential treatment center for oppositional adolescents. Despite their volatile behavior, limited self-control, deficient prosocial skills, and lack of group experience, they responded positively to the experience. The model is felt to effectively enhance cooperation,…

This study, involving four staff members in an institution for people with mental retardation, found that a computerized system of prompts to improve staff-client interactions produced more positive statements, improved distribution of interaction among clients, and resulted in delivery of more positive reinforcement than a traditional…

Group process and rating techniques were used to create a scale for measuring severity and frequency of 24 problem behaviors in institutionalized mentally retarded persons. A substantial correlation was found between scores and staff-time allocations, indicating usefulness of the scale as a predictor of staffing requirements for behavior…