Theory of Constraints Handbook - James Cox Iii [538]
Kathy can be reached at Suerken@cox.net.
CHAPTER 27
Theory of Constraints in Prisons
Christina Cheng
Introduction
Theory of Constraints (TOC) has a distinguished history of success dealing with constraints in business and education. In Singapore1 where math and science rankings are among the top in the world, its educated human capital is regarded as its most prized asset. At the same time, given the country’s limited population, it is viewed as a core constraint. To exploit this constraint and in line with ongoing government policy to improve workforce productivity, an opportunity arose to help long-term unemployed workers reintegrate into the Singapore workforce using the TOC Thinking Processes (TP).
In August 2006, the National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) through its Job Re-creation Program in conjunction with the Rehabilitative Division of Singapore Prison Services engaged TOC Asia Pte Ltd. to help prepare pre-release adult prison inmates for outside employment using the TOC TP. As part of the pilot study, selected inmates would attend a TOC mindset management workshop immediately followed by a NTUC job fair at the end of October 2006 to help them secure a job before release. The end goal presented to TOC was to reduce the high job attrition rate of ex-inmates upon release. This meant that any behavioral or mindset change observed during the TOC workshop must be sustained outside the relatively stable prison environment in the face of uncertain external influences in order for the project to be deemed successful.
It was clear that a formidable task was ahead. A major obstacle in the preparation of the workshop was a lack of student conformity in the pilot group, with regard to age, language, education, race, and type of offense. This resulted in extreme variations in class profiles. In a particular training session, a Malay-speaking elderly inmate, slightly deaf and illiterate, could be seen sitting next to an English-educated postgraduate sociologist! Coupled with no available generic training materials, limited prison intuition, no formal background in teaching or psychology to address the disparate range of chronic negative behavior, the biggest question was whether we could adequately address all individual training needs of the diverse pilot group.
FIGURE 27-1 The project timeline.
The other challenging factor was the short course timeframe. In order to meet the October NTUC job fair schedule, the course duration was limited to 18 hours spread over six sessions over 2 weeks. Was it possible to change a person’s mindset within such a short time? Project success would be measured by the percentage increase in job retention over the first 3 months of employment upon release. Did it work? At the end of the pilot study,2 job retention over the said period rose threefold from a historical 20 percent to an astonishing 59 percent. Numbers aside, however, we leave it to the reader to gauge the success of the overall project. The program timeline is provided in Fig. 27-1.
What to Change?
Preliminary Study
Demographics of the pilot study group were as follows:
60 male adult offenders
Age range 21 to 60 years
Primary school education or below (46 percent), secondary (32 percent), pre-university GCE, N, and O level (12 percent), technical (9 percent), degree (1 percent)
Malay (50 percent), Chinese (42 percent), Indian (7 percent), Other (1 percent)
Weak to basic English comprehension
Independent focus group sessions were conducted with the prison officers and inmates prior to workshop commencement to better understand how TOC could be used to bridge the gap between existing rehabilitation and job preparation programs