[Psychotherapy in the penitentiary environment: problems and perspectives]

While recent studies suggest that psychotherapy has little impact on recidivism, these studies are far from conclusive and they tell us little about the ultimate value of psychotherapy in the correctional setting. Aside from the issue of recidivism, psychotherapy in prison has many practical and humanistic advantages. The incarcerated offender may seek psychotherapy because of motivations that are totally unrelated to the issue of release. It is useful to consider psychotherapy of incarcerated offenders in terms of the relevance of helping factors that are critical to all types of psychotherapy. Some of these factors have less therapeutic influence in the prison setting than in the free world. Certain factors such as tension reduction and the learning of new behaviors probably have a greater therapeutic affect in the prison setting.