MRT is a cognitive-behavioral program that uses structured exercises designed to foster moral development in treatment-resistant clients. As long as a clients' judgments about right and wrong are made from low levels of moral reasoning, counseling them, training them in job skills, and even punishing them will have little long-lasting impact on their behavior. They must be confronted with the consequences of their behavior and the effect that it has had on their family, friends, and community. Poor moral reasoning is common within at-risk populations.

MRT addresses beliefs and reasoning. It is a systematic, step-by-step group counseling treatment approach for treatment-resistant clients. The program is designed to alter how clients think and make judgments about what is right and wrong. The MRT system approaches the problem of treating resistant populations as a problem of low levels of moral reasoning. In this case, "moral" does not refer to a religious concept, but rather the theoretical conceptualization of psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg. Moral reasoning represents how a person makes decisions about what he or she should or should not do in a given situation. Youth meet in group setting once a week and can complete all steps of the MRT program in a minimum of 3 to 6 months.