I did some more research on a previous entry regarding the Dale Duke case, and found this Pegasus News story, which confirms that indeed it was a discharge from a psychological “treatment” program that triggered Dale’s probation revocation and resentencing:
In 1997 Duke was discharged from sex offender treatment because he would not admit to committing the sexual assault against his stepdaughter. A judge sentenced Duke to 20 years in prison because he did not complete the ordered treatment program.
This highlights the risk of “rubber stamp” conditions of psychological counseling as a condition of probation. There is always the possibility of the accused actually being innocent, in which case staying in denial would be expected, and any result otherwise would in fact be the result of successful brainwashing. (Normally I don’t use that term to describe what people in the mental health profession do, but in this case it’s quite accurate.)
Counseling can be a useful tool in rehabilitation. However, there is a huge difference between a real offender staying in denial and someone who is actually innocent, who is agreeing to probation just to put the entire ordeal behind them. I recognize finding the difference between the two is not easy, and is a problem that may well take years if not decades to solve, if ever.