This is especially true for sexual offenders, who routinely require generalization of skills to community settings with the collaborative assistance of case management and treatment staff. A formula for failure is to have an offender believe that he or she is finished treatment when the institutional program is done. Unfortunately, this happens in a surprising number of cases. To combat this problem, we suggest that institutional staff attempt to instill in offenders a strong belief in the necessity of community-based maintenance programming. Further, staff should make it abundantly clear to offenders that they should expect community follow-up.
Families are important to offenders.
However, many sex offenders offend within their family and, therefore, have a hard time returning to their family without getting into trouble with victims, the Children's Aid Society, the police and the Service. Offenders need to understand that while they have had time to deal with things, their families might not have. This is especially true for children who were victims, who likely have not had treatment. Institutional staff would be well advised to inform offenders that they may not get to see their family immediately, especially family members from out of town. Some offenders have to be careful about how they handle family reconciliation.