Discourse Study Of Prison Counseling

This dissertation investigates into how counseling is done in the context of China’s prisons in which security is the priority and reforming inmates into law-abiding citizens is the overall goal of inmate correction and rehabilitation. A principal concern is how participants organize their speech to validate their accounts and attribute responsibilities. The individual talk between custodial officials and inmates, a more traditional method to educate and reform inmates in China’s prisons, is provided to offer a comparative study. The present study is intended to help police counselors and prison administrators reflect on the counseling claimed to be and counseling done to be and to evaluate prison counseling from a more dialectic viewpoint. The ultimate goal of this study is to enhance our understanding of what is going on in China’s prisons.This dissertation combines the theoretical and methodological principles of discursive psychology and Shi-xu’s cultural approach to discourse. The concept of discourse evidence is proposed for the evaluation of the operation and outcome of offender treatment programs including prison counseling. The discourse data consist of9counseling sessions and10individual talks obtained from three prisons in southern China. It is argued in this study that both police counselors and inmate clients employ different discursive devices to attribute responsibilities for inmate clients" problems and solution to these problems while at the same time managing the stakes or interests that they are personally involved in. The findings of the comparative study between prison counseling and individual talk indicate that from a dialectic viewpoint, prison counseling provides a new communication channel through which inmates share their experiences and feelings. Implications from this dissertation could be applied to the training of frontline police counselors, professional development and future prison studies in China.