Analysis of the effectiveness of Family Psychological Support Project for Pre-prisoners and their Families
Authors:   Form of Public Safety and Culture, Park Myeong In , Gong Jung Sik 
Published: April 2023

The disconnection from society resulting from long imprisonment among individuals with a criminal history renders them unable to readapt to society and they encounter various overlapping problems such as housing, economic conditions, and employment issues after their release, hindering their successful reintegration into society. Utilizing various supports and resources after their release is crucial in helping pre-prisoners adjust to society and prevent recidivism. Among these supports, the family is the most effective resource and strongest support system for helping pre-prisoners return to society and form the foundation for their recovery. However, families experience various psychological and practical difficulties due to the crimes of their family members, which can lead to crisis families and family disintegration. Therefore, there is an urgent need for practical support for pre-prisoners and their families. However, there is currently an insufficient level of effectiveness verification research or programs related to this, and practical institutional support is also inadequate. In this regard, this study aimed to analyze the effectiveness of the Family Psychological Treatment Support Project, which is part of the 『family psychological treatment support project, such as those subject to probation』 conducted by the Gyeonggi Branch of the Korea Justice Protection Welfare Corporation. The project aims to solve the problems of families who are experiencing a break in family relationships and communication due to crimes or imprisonment of pre-prisoners and to help restore family relationships. In terms of research methodology, items with high predictive power were selected based on the data of the Social Adjustment Predictive Index. The reconstructed Social Adjustment Predictive Index and Life Emotion Scale were then used as research tools. Descriptive statistics and t-tests were conducted when analyzing the data. The research analysis revealed that, firstly, there were statistically significant pre-post changes in investment for the future, family belief, and occupational self-efficacy among individual family counseling participants. Regarding gender characteristics, there were statistically significant changes in male resilience and female vocational self-efficacy, and by family status, there were also statistically significant changes in pre-prisoner resilience and family vocational self-efficacy. Finally, in terms of participation in counseling, the greatest effect of individual family counseling was found to be an increase in family trust. When participants participated in both individual family counseling and family counseling camps, resilience was high at a statistically significant level, suggesting that the family counseling camp's resilience strengthening program was effective. Based on these research results, the problems and supplementary points of the program were discussed in the conclusions and suggestions. Suggestions were made to provide a program that could achieve improved results in the future by adjusting the content of the program.