Horses Key To Award-Winning Therapy Program At Chesco Prison

WEST CHESTER, PA — Probation specialists in Chester County wanted people who left prison to stay out, and their search for solutions brought them to a unique therapy program that uses horse training to teach new behaviors.

Chester County Prison has been selected as state-wide winner, receiving the 21st Century Criminal Justice Best Practices Awards in the large jail category for its Cognitive Behavioral Equine Enhancement program.

"The results have been incredible. It is clear that the program is having a positive effect on recidivism, and it can be shared and replicated in other counties so that our communities as a whole benefit," said Janine Quigley, Chair of the Committee on County Criminal Justice Systems for the 21st Century.

Recidivism refers to the return rate of offenders after their release from prison.

Chester County Commissioners presented Quigley with the award in a recent public meeting.

"Chester County's Cognitive Behavioral Equine Enhancement Program brings together corrections staff, adult probation staff and the nonprofit sector to provide a system of support that targets anxiety, depression and hopelessness among prison inmates," Quigley explained.

In 2013, Chester County Adult Probation began looking at ways to reduce recidivism for new arrests or technical violations, and to reduce the jail population by avoiding the return of probation/parole violators.

Staff in Adult Probation began a Thinking for Change (T4C) curriculum at the prison — an integrated, cognitive behavior change program for offenders that includes cognitive restructuring, social skill development and development of problem solving skills, county officials explained.

The success of the T4C curriculum eventually led to Chester County Prison and Adult Probation working with Gateway HorseWorks' Stable Pathways equine-assisted psychotherapy program.

Through private donations, the Cognitive Behavioral Equine Enhancement Program — as it came to be called — moved to the Chester County Prison with the building of a facility to accommodate horses transported from HorseWorks.

Using horses, but never riding, offenders are invited once a week into a safe, non-judgmental space to build a trusting relationship with the horses and the equine specialist-certified mental health professionals.

Chris Murphy, Chief of Chester County Probation, Parole and Pre-Trial Services, said, "Our partnership with Gateway HorseWorks started with our Women's Re-Entry and Assessment Program, but later expanded to include male inmates housed at the Work Release Center at Chester County Prison."

"Over the years, the results of the Cognitive Behavioral Equine Enhancement Program have been incredible, with recidivism rates for new arrests and technical violations recorded as drastically lower than statewide and national levels," said Murphy.

" We are proud of this program and the results that it has achieved, not just in the lowering of recidivism rates, but in giving both men and women who qualify for the program access to creative and effective ways of addressing mental health issues," he added.

The award is sponsored by the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (CCAP), the Pennsylvania County Corrections Association, the PA Prison Wardens Association, the CCAP Insurance Programs, and JDCAP.

The Criminal Justice Systems for the 21st Century award program was created to address population management within county prisons across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and to recognize effective, targeted practices and programs that create a lasting solution to overcrowding in prisons, Quigley said.