13.7 – Work with Clients Post-incarceration
Purpose & Context
Career Development Professionals (CDPs) reflect on their own values and beliefs and seek to understand those of their clients. CDPs challenge their own assumptions and avoid stereotypes that might negatively impact the well-being of the client and the outcomes of career development interventions.In preparation to working with clients with a criminal record and/or post-incarceration, CDPs must be knowledgeable about the unique challenges and barriers faced following a conviction, and how these may impact expectations about, and access to, work, education and training.
Effective Performance
Competent career development professionals must be able to:
- P1. Identify challenges and barriers clients with a criminal record may be facing, for example:
- Homelessness or inadequate housing
- Discrimination
- Lack of adequate discharge planning
- Difficulty reintegrating into society
- Lack of a support network
- Lack of training
- Gap in employment history
- Inadequate reintegration supports
- Restrictive parole or probation requirements
- Lack of knowledge of current labour market
- Disqualification from specific roles due to criminal record
- Poverty
- P2. Select potential tools and resources designed to facilitate reintegration, for example:
- Reintegration services
- Lodging and financial assistance
- Addiction and harm reduction services
- P3. Reflect on how the career development approach might be tailored to meet client’s needs, for example:
- Explain legal protections relevant to the client as applicable in client’s province/territory
- Assist client in obtaining and maintaining permanent housing, accessing food, clothing, hygiene items
- Build social support, e.g. family, community
- Continuity of care with health professionals, e.g. substance abuse treatment program, after care programming
- Ensure coordinated support services, e.g. agencies in the criminal justice and social service systems
- Engage communities in planning and delivery of reintegration
- Explore training options
- Explore reintegration services
- Connect individual with needed supports and services
- Help build financial literacy
Knowledge & Understanding
Competent career development professionals must know and understand:
- K1. Programs designed to cater to the needs and issues related to justice-involved individuals, e.g. pre-release
preparation, education, and training programs - K2. Judiciary status of client, e.g. parole, statutory release, probation
- K3. Legislation impacting people post-incarceration, e.g. British Columbia’s Human Rights Code, Quebec’s Charter of
Human Rights and Freedoms, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Human Rights Act
Contextual Variables
Competent career development professionals must be able to perform this competency in the following range of contexts:
Criminal records may have a larger impact for clients seeking to work in specific fields, e.g. working with vulnerable populations.
Glossary & Key References
Terms
Industry-specific terms contained in the standard defined here, where applicable.
Information Sources and Resources for Consideration
Griffiths, Curt T., Dandurant, Yvon, Murdoch, Danielle. National Crime Prevention (NCPC). Research Report: 20017-2. The Social Reintegration of Offenders and Crime Prevention, April 2007. ISBN: 978-0-662-46888-2. Catalogue number: PS4-49/2007E
O’Grady, Dr. William, Lafleur, Ryan, John Howard Society of Ontario. Reintegration in Ontario: Practices, priorities, and effective models. University of Guelph, 2016.
Shepard, Blythe C. & Mani, Priya A. Eds. Career Development Practice in Canada. Toronto: CERIC Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counselling, 2014. ISBN: 978-0-9811652-3-3.
Zunker, Vernon G. Career Counselling: A Holistic Approach 9th edition. Boston: Loose-leaf Edition, 2016. ISBN-10: 978-1-305-40106-8
Context Rating Scales
Criticality
Q: What is the consequence of a professional being unable to perform this skill according to the standard?
Frequency
Q: How frequent and under what conditions is this skill performed?
Level of Difficulty
Q: Under routine circumstances, how would you rate the level of difficulty in performing this skill?
Time Required to Gain Proficiency
Q: What is the average length of time or number of repeated events that are minimally necessary for an individual to become proficient in performing the skill to the standard?
A competent career development professional requires a minimum of one year of experience with at least 40 different clients, representing a broad range of individuals, including clients experiencing poverty.
Autonomy
Practitioners typically perform this competency without supervision, and alone.
Automation
It is unlikely that this competency will automate.