The effect of the absence of close supervision on the use of response cost in a prison token economy.

Researchers watched a prison token-economy over the study period. They counted how often staff took points away for rule breaking.

First 14 days: normal supervision. Next 28 days: supervisors stayed in another room. Last 14 days: supervisors came back.

When bosses left, staff gave response cost twice as often. They also punished new behaviors that were never on the list.

When bosses returned, point loss dropped back to the first-week level. Extra punishments stopped.

WEINELong (1962) showed response cost works in a lab. Lea et al. (1977) shows it can run wild in real life without eyes on staff.

Bensemann et al. (2015) found DRO can accidentally reward other behavior. Same warning: watch the whole room, not just the target.

Flory et al. (1974) proved blocking side actions hurts DRL success. Here, blocking supervisor view hurts fair punishment.

Token boards, level systems, and point fines are common in group homes and classrooms. This study tells you to keep a senior staff member visible. A quick walk-through every 30 minutes keeps punishment fair and rare. Add a daily tally sheet where staff write each point loss and why. Review the sheet at shift change. You will stop drift before it starts.