Curriculum Review of Cage Your Rage by Sarah Barton, FASTEN Editorial Staff, 2005 Many people involved with the criminal justice system have problems controlling their anger. The Cage Your Rage Series is designed help pre- and post-release offenders to develop skills that will lead to a healthier lifestyle and avoid the behaviors that contributed to their imprisonment. Cage Your Rage: An Inmate’s Guide to Anger Control is a workbook designed for inmates to help them learn how to manage their anger and avoid aggressive actions. Based upon an anger management program developed by author Murray Cullen, this is an easy-to-read workbook that can be used by inmates individually or in an anger management course for inmates. Although it is designed for use by inmates, it addresses skills crucial to their success following their release. · Section one of the workbook, “Anger—Past and Present,” helps inmates to recognize how hurts that occurred while they were growing up may contribute to the way they deal with the emotion of anger now. · Section two, “Anger and Aggression,” discusses the results of anger and how to prevent anger from leading to aggression. · Section three, “What Causes Anger?,” helps inmates to distinguish between the “inside” and “outside” reasons why people get angry. Inside reasons, such as feelings or thoughts, are within the inmate’s control and instruction is provided about how to deal with them. Also, inmates are given tools about how to react to outside or external reasons that are beyond their control. · Section four, “How to Manage Your Anger,” helps the inmate to develop skills needed to manage his anger, including relaxation techniques, changing negative thinking patterns, developing awareness of the progression of angry feelings, and dealing with anger one step at a time. Each of the four sections contains extensive questions encouraging the prisoner to engage in self-examination and to write in-depth responses. Cage Your Rage is also available in a package containing accompanying videos and 10 workbooks. In addition, Cage Your Rage for Women and Cage Your Rage for Teens are available for use by practitioners serving those populations. Another course that was designed to be used as a follow-up to Cage Your Rage but also could be a stand-alone course for offenders following their release is entitled Inside Out: Continuing to Cage Your Rage. This workbook is designed specifically for the soon to be released or post-release offender. Using a format similar to the previous workbook, it is aimed at further developing the ex-offender’s anger management skills and helping him to develop healthy thinking patterns.
Chapter one, “A Short Trip Down Memory Lane,” provides a review of the material covered in Cage Your Rage. Chapter two, “Dream Time Is Over—The Street Beckons,” deals with the limitations on the ex-offender’s new freedom. It addresses restraints resulting from his status as a parolee as well as those resulting from damage he may have caused to his relationships. The goal of this chapter is to help the ex-offender to prepare for these realities and other challenges of freedom so that he can avoid returning to prison. Chapter three, “Stick with Primary Feelings,” distinguishes between primary and secondary emotions, and helps the ex-offender learn how to develop a healthy pattern of recognizing his primary emotions rather than reacting to stressful situations based upon secondary emotions. Chapter four, “Misperceptions, Sabotage, and Primary Feelings,” helps the ex-offender to recognize the potential for his misperceptions and negative assumptions to create conflict. In addition, it further develops the information provided in the previous chapter by stressing the need to allow primary emotions rather than secondary emotions to guide responses to potential conflicts. Chapter five, “A Slice of Relapse: Anger Prevention,” provides the ex-offender with tools to identify the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors they have immediately before engaging in negative behavior and provides alternate coping strategies. The premise underlying this chapter is that recognizing these patterns and finding other, more positive responses will help the ex-offender to avoid sliding back into the behaviors that led to his imprisonment. Chapter six, “Relapse Prevention Games: Practice Makes Perfect,” provides additional relapse prevention exercises and practice scenarios to reinforce the ex-offender’s skills. Chapter seven, “Revisiting Risk: An Ounce of Prevention,” advises ex-offenders to review and revise their risk avoidance plans periodically since the risks to which they are vulnerable are likely to change over time. Chapter eight, “Your Support Team: Lean on Me,” recommends that the ex-offender find some caring “risk watchdogs” to tell him if they think he in danger of engaging in negative behavior. This will provide an extra source of protection for the ex-offender to make him aware of risks he may not recognize. Chapter nine, “Released: Free at Last!,” provides an overview of the material covered in the workbook. Available from the well-established and reputable American Correctional Association, the Cage Your Rage workbooks are an excellent resource for practitioners who offer life skills or anger management programs for ex-offenders. | 
