Environmental Restructuring

• Environmental restructuring is defined as “changing the physical or social context”¹ of an individual.
  • Examples of physical context include place of residence, work, or leisure activities.
    • Physical context includes the places a client frequents and the characteristics of such places (dangerous vs. peaceful, dirty vs. clean, etc.).
  • Examples of social context include family members, friend(s), and recreational activities a client engages with or is around.

• Since officers have limited ability to modify the environment that a client resides in (for example, lower the crime rate, provide better recreational facilities, or even improve street lighting), environmental restructuring in community supervision typically requires officers to make clients aware of the risks associated with their environment so that they make changes to it or move to a new one.
• Traditionally, environmental restructuring in community supervision often involves mandates prohibiting clients from frequenting certain areas (physical contexts) or associating with certain friends and family members (social contexts) via curfews, electronic monitoring, etc.
  • These mandates can be accompanied by a sanction if the person is unable to make the changes immediately or at all.
• Environmental restructuring is best achieved by building and relying on the officer-client relationship.

How Can It Be Used to Monitor Compliance?

• Environmental restructuring should not be used to monitor compliance.

How Can It Be Used as a Supervision Tool?

• Environmental restructuring is an effective way to help clients find positive and supportive physical and social contexts.
  • This can help an individual change behavior and comply with supervision conditions.

What Are the Costs of Environmental Restructuring?

• Large-scale environmental restructuring (e.g., changing a housing complex so that it is safer) is very expensive and often beyond the abilities of probation officers.
• Increasing a client’s awareness of the risks posed by their environment so that they are motivated to change it in realistic ways (i.e., no drastic changes; the client must be ready and able to make a change) is inexpensive as it can be done during regular office and field visits.
  • Threats of sanction cannot “convince” a person to change their environment.
  • Officers should work on persuasion approaches to help clients consider the value of changing contexts.
  • This can raise the costs of environmental restructuring if sanctions involve electronic monitoring, jail stays, etc.

Supervision staff report that environmental restructuring is

• sometimes appropriate for all low-risk clients and
• always appropriate for medium-/high-risk clients, except those who have committed general violence offenses, for whom it is sometimes appropriate.

Client Outcomes

• Changing a client’s environment can make it easier to address antisocial or self-harming (e.g., drug use) behaviors and develop/maintain prosocial or self-supporting behaviors.
  • It can be difficult to address an antisocial behavior (e.g., drug use) if there are not realistically obtainable prosocial behaviors (e.g., attractive work and/or leisure opportunities) in the surrounding environment.
• Clients who associate with friends and family members who support positive behavior changes may be better able to follow supervision requirements than those with friends and family members who encourage them to continue offending or harmful behavior.

Is Environmental Restructuring an Evidence-Based Practice?

• Yes. Environmental restructuring is an evidence-based practice that has been shown to reduce participation in criminal and/or problem behaviors and improve mental health, physical health, and life satisfaction.

What Do People Formerly Involved in the Criminal Legal System Think About Environmental Restructuring?

• Environmental restructuring is sometimes appropriate for all low-, medium-, and high-risk clients.

Communication That Strengthens the Officer-Client Relationship (Messaging)

• Officers should explain that environmental restructuring can create circumstances that support the client in changing their behavior and leading a better life.
• Officers should ask the client for feedback regarding what types of restructuring are feasible to undertake.
  • It may be unrealistic to expect a client to completely change who they associate with and where they live.
    • Clients may be unable to make these environmental changes due to cost, longstanding relationships/connections, etc.
• Officers should be aware that the places a client frequents and the people they associate with are rarely either positive or negative. They can be both, and part of an officer’s  effort is to help others see the positive and negative aspects of the client’s environment.
  • Some friends may continue to use drugs themselves but actively encourage the client to stop and support other aspects of behavior change.
  • Some places may be violence-prone but still offer valuable friend groups and prosocial activities for the client.
• Discuss the pros and cons of changing their environment with the client to help them determine whether they should do so.