Federal Correctional Facility Research Articles

"Do You Want to Go Forward or Do You Want to Go Under?" Men's Mental Health in and Out of Prison.

More than 11 million people are currently imprisoned worldwide, with the vast majority of incarcerated individuals being male. Hypermasculine environments in prison are often tied to men’s health risks, and gathering information about mental health is fundamental to improving prison as well as community services. The purpose of the current study was to describe the connections between masculinities and men’s mental health among prisoners transitioning into and out of a Canadian federal correctional facility. Two focus groups were conducted with a total of 18 men who had recently been released from a federal correctional facility. The focus group interviews were analyzed to inductively derive patterns pertaining to men’s mental health challenges and resiliencies “on the inside” and “on the outside.” Participant’s challenges in prison related to heightened stresses associated with being incarcerated and the negative impact on preexisting mental illness including imposed changes to treatment regimens. Men’s resiliencies included relinquishing aggression and connecting to learn from other men “on the inside.” Mental health challenges “on the outside” included a lack of work skills and finances which increased the barriers that many men experienced when trying to access community-based mental health services. Mental health resiliencies employed by participants “on the outside” included self-monitoring and management to reduce negative thoughts, avoiding substance use and attaining adequate exercise and sleep. The current study findings offer practice and policy guidance to advance the well-being of this vulnerable subgroup of men in as well as out of prison.

Notes from the Field: Botulism Outbreak from Drinking Prison-Made Illicit Alcohol in a Federal Correctional Facility — Mississippi, June 2016

<i>Notes from the Field</i>: Botulism Outbreak from Drinking Prison-Made Illicit Alcohol in a Federal Correctional Facility — Mississippi, June 2016

Twelve Committed Men: the feasibility of a community-based participatory HIV-prevention intervention within a Canadian men's correctional facility.

The intervention objectives were to evaluate and describe the feasibility of using a community-based research (CBR) approach to adapt and implement HIV-prevention materials and tools with incarcerated men. We found no prior published reports about CBR HIV-prevention education in Canadian correctional facilities. Twelve members of the correctional Peer Education Committee (PEC) and Aboriginal PEC, whom a correctional nurse identified as being interested in preventive health, were purposively invited to participate. Eight participants were serving life sentences, three were Aboriginal and their education levels ranged from below grade 8 to 11 years of post-secondary education. The setting was a medium-security federal correctional facility, housing 324 men. The intervention was guided by CBR and 'greater involvement of people with AIDS' principles. Participants were invited to attend four workshops, over seven days in May 2014, and to provide their insights regarding future scaled-up CBR HIV prevention. Each workshop included an HIV-prevention presentation and a focus group discussion, two of which were audio-recorded. All participants attended all sessions. Synthesis of mixed-method findings, with quantitative and qualitative data triangulation, demonstrated two major outcomes: 'new knowledge was generated' regarding feasibility of CBR HIV prevention in a men's correction facility; and 'capacity building occurred' with increased participants' social capital. Thirty incarcerated men requested HIV testing following the intervention, because participants spread their knowledge about HIV prevention to others. Participants asked to become 'health ambassadors' - champion advisors for future scaled-up CBR HIV-prevention intervention for the entire correctional facility. CBR HIV prevention is feasible within a Canadian men's correctional facility.

Investigation of a Chlamydia pneumoniae Outbreak in a Federal Correctional Facility in Texas

Chlamydia pneumoniae illness is poorly characterized, particularly as a sole causative pathogen. We investigated a C. pneumoniae outbreak at a federal correctional facility. We identified inmates with acute respiratory illness (ARI) from 1 November 2009 to 24 February 2010 through clinic self-referral and active case finding. We tested oropharyngeal and/or nasopharyngeal swabs for C. pneumoniae by real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and serum samples by microimmunofluorescence. Cases were inmates with ARI and radiologically confirmed pneumonia, positive qPCR, or serological evidence of recent infection. Swabs from 7 acutely ill inmates were tested for 18 respiratory pathogens using qPCR TaqMan Array Cards (TACs). Follow-up swabs from case patients were collected for up to 8 weeks. Among 33 self-referred and 226 randomly selected inmates, 52 (20.1%) met the case definition; pneumonia was confirmed in 4 by radiology only, in 9 by qPCR only, in 17 by serology only, and in 22 by both qPCR and serology. The prison attack rate was 10.4% (95% confidence interval, 7.0%-13.8%). White inmates and residents of housing unit Y were at highest risk. TAC testing detected C. pneumoniae in 4 (57%) inmates; no other causative pathogens were identified. Among 40 inmates followed prospectively, C. pneumoniae was detected for up to 8 weeks. Thirteen (52%) of 25 inmates treated with azithromycin continued to be qPCR positive >2 weeks after treatment. Chlamydia pneumoniae was the causative pathogen of this outbreak. Higher risk among certain groups suggests that social interaction contributed to transmission. Persistence of C. pneumoniae in the oropharynx creates challenges for outbreak control measures.

Effect of Test Administration Set on the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS)

The Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) was administered to 160 male prisoners on admission to a medium-security federal correctional facility. A total of 106 of these inmates completed the PICTS a second time 6 months later in a routine follow-up of the intake PICTS; the other 54 inmates completed the PICTS a second time approximately 6 months later during the initial session of a psychological group. Results showed that inmates participating in the psychological group were less defensive and endorsed more criminal thinking items on the second administration of the PICTS, whereas inmates participating in the routine follow-up were more defensive and less likely to endorse criminal thinking items on the second PICTS. Despite a general increase in the magnitude of PICTS scores for program participants, the overall pattern of scale elevations (correlations between scales and high-point pairs) was comparable across the two groups.

Evaluation and Epidemiological Research in Tuberculosis Control: Linking Medical Care and Public Health

Evaluation and Epidemiological Research in Tuberculosis Control: Linking Medical Care and Public Health

Trial Rights and Psychotropic Drugs: The Case Against Administering Involuntary Medications to a Defendant During Trial

This paper explores the legal problems that arise when the government undertakes to render a criminal defendant competent to stand trial, by administering involuntary psychotropic medications. Among these problems are the infringement of the defendant's trial rights, such as the right to receive assistance of counsel and to confront witnesses, as well as interference with the defendant's ability to testify and to present evidence of a mental illness. This paper explores these problems with special reference to the case of Russell Weston, who has been charged with murder in the deaths of two Capitol police officers and who spent more than three years in a federal correctional facility while the District of Columbia federal courts decided whether the government could administer involuntary medications for the purpose of rendering him competent to stand trial. The paper concludes that because the unfair prejudice resulting from involuntary medications cannot be cured, the government should be prohibited from administering involuntary medications to a defendant during trial.

Ruby, Wanda and Me, Late at Night, in the County Jail

I loved him more than I loved yellow seahorses and red anemones and glass-hearted frogs put together, and when I was with him, I thought of myself as Psyche with a bosom full of fish or as Daphne, her hair in wild disarray. I don't know if you could say we were ever happy together. It seemed like happiness, but it was more like the excitement of infatuation combined with insecurity, jealousy, and the tantalizing prospect of reforming him. I never imagined I'd turn on him, but Psyche's wings got burnt and Eros somehow got immo lated by his own principle, fire. Eventually he joined the Air Force and was shipped off to Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota; I got pregnant and had his baby. Then I was arrested and convicted and sent to the Federal Correctional Facility in Alderson, West Virginia. His name was Theodore St. Clair, but I called him T-Bone. We met at the Mount Abrams Military Academy at the corner of Riverside Drive and noth Street, where, every Thursday after school, I creat ed quite a sensation by lying across the doorway in my skeleton cos tume so that every young warrior coming out of school had to step over me. One day, Theodore stopped, took my hand, yanked me to my feet, told me the police were on the way and suggested I do something legal with my passions. Dioxin is legal, I said. Nuclear bombs are War is legal. I could see that he was a leader and probably a nonconformist because he was the only one in the school who had managed to hang onto his hair. He walked me to the end of the path and offered me a ride on his motorcycle, and from then on, every afternoon, I found myself wandering out of school in my grey and blue St. Ursula's uniform with a scapular of the Blessed Virgin around my neck, jumping onto Theodore's motorcycle, and disappearing into a trail of smoking sin. Pet your dog, not your date, my father said, and the billboard up on Broadway advised, A tisket, a tasket, a condom or a casket. But I felt myself looking underneath Theodore's military husk and seeing a

Trip Generation Rates of Correctional Facilities

In the planning of a system of new regional jails in West Virginia, a general lack of trip generation data for correctional facilities was noted. Consequently, five regional jails and one federal correctional facility in West Virginia were studied. First, trip rates were calculated exclusively for the regional jails. Since the regional jails were a homogenous grouping of correctional facilities with respect to facility type and size, the trip rates calculated for the regional jails are believed to be reliable. Second, the regional jail data were synthesized with data from the Institute of Transportation Engineers and the federal correctional facility in West Virginia. These facilities were not homogenous with respect to size or facility type. It was determined that both the facility type (i.e., prisons versus jails) and size have a significant impact on the trip rate. Trip rates were calculated for the more generalized grouping of “correctional facilities” based on the synthesized database. However, users are cautioned to adjust the trip rates to reflect actual conditions with respect to facility type, size, and visitation policy.

Depression and anxiety disorder among older male inmates at a federal correctional facility

The conditions of incarceration and the sociodemographic and health characteristics of 95 older male inmates of a federal correctional facility were studied to determine the relationship of such variables to rates of psychiatric disorder among older male inmates. A total of 51 inmates (53.7 percent) met one-month criteria for psychiatric disorder, a much higher rate than among a community sample of men in the same geographic area. Compared with inmates without such disorders, inmates with disorders were likely to be younger, to have a history of psychiatric disorder and substance abuse, to have poorer physical health, to have impaired social support, and to be serving a determinate sentence with no possibility of parole. Few were receiving treatment while incarcerated.

Dying in Prison: Sociocultural and Psychosocial Dynamics

In January 1988, an inmate-staffed hospice volunteer program began operation at a federal correctional medical facility, with the goal of meeting the unique psychosocial, palliative, and spiritual needs of terminally ill prisoners, primarily men with AIDS and cancer. This paper discusses sociocultural and psychosocial characteristics of the incarcerated patients and the prison hospital setting. It presents a number of case examples. Particular attention is given to the effect that an environment of intensified anger, hostility, distrust, and despair has on the coping mechanisms of terminally ill, incarcerated patients.

Effect of Media Training On Inmate Interpersonal Relationship Skills

Forty-five inmates in a federal correctional facility drug abuse program were assigned to roles of communicator or listener in a media training procedure or to a control group. Subjects who viewed themselves role-playing appropriate and inappropriate listening behaviors increased their use of reflection of feeling in an interview with a coached client. Subjects who viewed a peer role-playing appropriate and inappropriate listening behaviors increased their use of reflection of feeling and a minimal verbal response.

THE MARKED ITEM TECHNIQUE: A PRACTICAL PROCEDURE FOR UTTER CONTROLsp1

Unobtrusively marked items of litter were placed among existing trash on the grounds of a federal youth correctional facility. Inmates voluntarily collected trash and deposited it at a central location, where they were given money or special privileges for each piece of marked litter found. A multiple-baseline design with litter counts in three areas revealed successive reductions of 55%, 88%, and 71% after 17, 22, and 36 days of baseline, respectively. A fourth area served as a baseline-only control, and revealed no systematic changes. Advantages of the procedure over previously devised techniques were discussed and applications in other areas of pollution control suggested.