WRC: Treatment Programs

Individuals are referred to WRC due to severe impairments in daily living as a result of mental health challenges. Residents are placed in units that support and encourage positive change and prepare them for return to the Department of Corrections or for release to the community.

Units

The housing units at WRC are divided into five service areas. Treatment is coordinated to meet the needs of the residents within the service area. Units typically house 18 to 30 residents in the men’s units and 8 to 20 in the women’s units.

• Psychiatric Service Area: Units 2, 12, and 15 receive and work with male residents with the most acute mental health symptoms. Many of the men on these units are presently or are in the process of mental health commitment. Men sent to WRC after a finding of not competent to stand trial also are treated on these units.
• Maximum Service Area: Units 16, 17, and 18 are designed for men referred from and returning to maximum security institutions in the Department of Corrections. While maintaining efforts to engage men in their treatment, the units also seek to model more closely the higher level of security found at maximum institutions to aid in eventual transition back to the Department of Corrections.
• Medium Service Area: Units 1 and 7 are designed for men referred from and returning to medium security institutions in the Department of Corrections. This engages residents in treatment as well as prepares them for return to Department of Corrections at medium custody levels. Most residents are in double cells.
• Medium Service Area and Substance Use Disorder Area: Units 9 and 10 provide the Substance Use Recovery Perseverance and Hope Program focusing on addressing a resident's needs in both group and individual treatment by providing a continuum of substance use disorder treatment services. This program is a closed group consisting of 10 residents and one assigned treatment specialist. It places heavy emphasis on skill-building activities to assist with cognitive, social, emotional, and coping skills development.
• Substance Use Disorder and Release Service Area: Units 3, 5, 6, and 8 focus on preparing residents for release to the community, including working on drug and alcohol issues if that is needed. The focus is on the resident's choice-making and release planning.
• High Management: Units 4 and 11 provide highly controlled and structured facilities for residents unable to be managed safely on more open units. Safety concerns are both for dangerousness to self and to others. The units actively seek to re-engage residents in treatment and assist them in moving to less restrictive areas as soon as is safely possible.
• Women’s Service Area (WWRC): Units 20, 21, and 22 provide a range of mental health services to women from Taycheedah Correctional Institution, women referred for alternative to revocation programming. and with women referred for treatment to competency/competency restoration from the court system. Units 20 and 22 work collaboratively to provide a range of structure and support as needed by the women while they are involved in therapeutic treatment services. Unit 21 is the specialized treatment unit offering a closed-treatment group for women struggling with severe traumatic reactions and individualized programming for women preparing for the trauma program and/or addressing mental health needs.

Learn more about each unit at WRC.

Core programs

Core treatment programs are evidence-based interventions that target the most frequent reasons that individuals are referred to WRC. Residents are referred to programs by their treatment teams based on the resident’s treatment plan.

Applying Wellness and Recovery Everyday (AWARE)
This group explores ways to achieve and maintain physical and mental wellness. Based on the five key recovery concepts (hope, personal responsibility, education, self-advocacy, and support), participants create their own plan to stay well.

Challenge Program
This group focuses on coping skills; strategies to manage frustration, anxiety, anger; and challenging mistaken beliefs and thought distortions. It provides residents with coping skills they can use in both at Department of Corrections institutions and in the community.

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)
Individuals who have a history of significant behavior problems including such things as self-injury, aggression, impulsivity, or interpersonal difficulties related to intense and reactive emotions may be referred to this group. They learn skills in the areas of mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. Skills practice outside of group sessions is an important part of participation and the focus is on using skills to reduce or eliminate their maladaptive behaviors.

Illness Management and Recovery (IMR)
Class topics may include but are not limited to maintaining mental health, mental health problems, interventions, and understanding mental health disorders and their symptoms; coping styles and alternatives to negative coping styles; institution and community support systems; developing and maintaining participant support systems; and developing a healthier quality of life during incarceration especially when also addressing major mental health diagnoses and interventions. Some classes may also include medication compliance and/or issues.

Individual trauma therapy
This program is for individuals whose trauma symptoms are causing significant problems in their daily functioning. Three different types of individual trauma therapy currently are offered: eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), exposure therapy (ET), and cognitive processing therapy (CPT).

Trauma Recovery and Empowerment Model (MTREM/TREM)
MTREM/TREM is for individuals whose trauma symptoms are causing significant problems in their daily functioning. This is a group that meets twice a week for 18 sessions to explore and discuss the impact of violence on their lives and healthy ways of coping with and healing from their past.

Pre-release
Pre-release programs are for residents approaching release to the community. A range of groups are offered.

Successful Treatment and Recovery (STAR)
This program is for individuals identified as moderate or high risk of reoffending who have been diagnosed with a severe and persistent mental illness.

Treat to competency
This group provides the student with a thorough understanding of the U.S. court system, a citizen’s legal rights, and basic information included in the competency manual necessary to pass the evaluator’s assessment.

Psychological assessment
An in-depth psychological assessment can be completed with people who require an evaluation beyond that available by unit psychological staff. Referrals can assess issues related to mental health diagnosis, personality and behavioral functioning, treatment recommendations, and behavioral risk.

Prison Rape Elimination Act

View our Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) audit report (PDF)