Juvenile Corrections: North Dakota Youth Correctional Center

The Equip Program

The Equip Vision statement:

EQUIP is the foundation for the delivery of services within the Division of Juvenile Services resulting in more responsible thinking and behavior for the juveniles in our care.

The Equip Mission statement:

Educating for Quality by Understanding Interpersonal Potential.

Program description:

The North Dakota Youth Correctional Center began implementing The Equip Program in February of 1998. Equip is a program designed to treat antisocial behavioral problems of youthful offenders. Cognitive behavioral redirection is the key to the program. Student thinking errors are identified and processed in ways that teach them to understand their thinking processes and recognize future thinking errors before they can occur.

The Equip skills groups are divided into three separate components including: Social skills, Social Decision-making, and Anger Management. The Social Skills sessions involve students role-playing situations and providing feedback as to how the situation was dealt with. Realistic examples are utilized to aid in having a positive and lasting impression on the students. The Social Decision-making sessions utilize stories that include moral dilemmas. Students are asked to read and discuss the stories then answer questions that prompt them to make critical decisions as if they were in similar positions. The Anger Management component teaches the anger control chain and is practiced, again, through role-plays every week.

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