Jail Settings Research Articles

The Price of Talk in Jail

This dialogue between former client and therapist examines the relation between money and therapy in a jail setting. It is based on a series of letters exchanged after therapy had ended and the client was transferred to another corrections setting. We describe differences between us in terms of money and power, and discuss how these disparities influenced each of us and shaped our communication. In sharing our experiences, we have begun to acknowledge and bridge our differences.

Social Work Education and Practice in the Jail Setting

ABSTRACT Despite social work's historical commitment to social justice and the strength of the profession in terms of the number of persons holding master degrees in social work, we are guilty of ignoring the needs which confront us daily from inside one of the oldest institutions in this country: the jail. The jail setting offers social workers the opportunity to simultaneously address the various critical needs of a multi-client system, a system which includes rising numbers of persons with serious and persistent mental illnesses, overworked and underappreciated detention personnel, and an often tedious and impersonal judicial process. In this article, the fit between jail system needs and social work education is explored and encouraged. Envisioned is an interdependent relationship where the jail provides the Academy and its students access to an environment rich and ripe for study and, in turn, the Academy offers the jail both direct services and indirect support for identifying and intervening in inmate mental health crises. Their mutual objective is the development of jail-based mental health programming.

Treatment in Controlled Environments: Final Thoughts on IMPACT A Federally Funded, Jail-Based, Drug-User-Treatment Program

A federal demonstration project in the Cook County Jail, called IMPACT (Intensive Multi-phased Program of Assessment and Comprehensive Treatment), provided residential drug-user treatment to more than 3,000 inmates during its 5 years of operation between January 1991 and October 1995. In that time, much was learned about initiating and conducting a complex, intensive, longer-term drug-user-treatment program in a jail setting. This article describes IMPACT and summarizes the results of a process and an outcome evaluation of the program and a series of focus groups. Based on these studies, we recommend ways to improve the design and implementation of drug-user treatment programs in jails.

AN EXPLORATORY ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CORRECTIONAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAMS (C.E.R.T.) IN JAIL SETTINGS

ABSTRACT This study employs a quasi-experimental, before-after, target-comparison group design as a preliminary and exploratory effort to assess the impact of Correctional Emergency Response Teams (C.E.R.T.) on the level of violence and injuries to staff and inmates within jail settings. The analyses are based on monthly data gathered from violent incident reports maintained at two matching central Florida county jails expressing different levels of CERT. The first jail, the target, has a staff fully trained and certified in CERT operations and functions; the second, the comparison jail, employs an ad hoc cell extraction team which is not trained in CERT nor does it employ CERT tactics and strategies. The findings suggest that CERT may indeed be significant in reducing the level of violence and associated injuries within jail settings. However, within the target jail, increases in the proportion of staff CERT trained and certified did not appear to lead to any additional reductions in the monthly levels of violence or injuries. The implications of these findings are discussed.

The Referral Decision Scale: A validation study.

We examined the validity of the Referral Decision Scale (RDS), a test designed to screen for mental disorder in jail inmates, in a sample of 790 men admitted to an urban pretrial jail. Our results indicated that, in general, the RDS had excellent reliability and acceptable validity as a screening measure for serious mental disorder in jail settings, despite making a large number of false positive errors relative to both contemporaneous and subsequent assessments of mental disorder. Although the RDS is well suited for use in research, more information is needed before the test is used for clinical purposes. We discuss some potential problems with the use of the RDS in correctional systems.

HIV Prevention Programs in a Jail Setting: Educational Strategies

The issue of the prevention of AIDS among intravenous drug users (IDUs) is a serious issue that must be addressed. The large number of hard to reach IDUs that enter and are retained in the jail system make the jail an excellent place to provide HIV/AIDS prevention programs. Based on a successful jail-based prevention program, the Community Outreach Project on AIDS in Southern Arizona (COPASA), this article addresses six issues that HIV/AIDS educators need to deal with when providing HIV/AIDS prevention in a jail setting. These issues include (a) the constraints of the jail setting; (b) access to inmates; (c) the educational needs of IDUs; (d) type, format, and content of the intervention; (e) HIV/AIDS testing in the jail; and (f) evaluation of the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS jail-based programs.

Comparative Suicide Rates in Different Types of Involuntary Confinement

In the past decade especially, a number of studies have appeared on suicide among court-involved persons, chiefly in jail and prison remand settings, and to a lesser degree among longer-term prisoners. Confinement is not everywhere equally suicidogenic, and the types of people who find themselves confined do not represent uniformly high risk groups. This article reports on rates of completed suicides over long periods of time in two very different US institutions operated by the Massachusetts Department of Correction: the Addiction Centre and its antecedent facilities (1886-1990); and the Defective Delinquent Department (1922-1971). For perspective, the paper compares suicide rates among its two populations to rates for other very distinctive institutions operated by the Massachusetts Department of Correction, the Bridgewater State Hospital and the Massachusetts Treatment Centre for Sexually Dangerous Persons. The results are remarkable for the rarity of suicide in three distinct populations--the Addiction Center, the Defective Delinquent Department and the Treatment Center for Sexually Dangerous Persons--but considerably higher rates in the State Hospital, a population often dismissed as 'criminally insane.' The possible significance of these results for debates about 'importation' versus 'deprivation' explanations of custodial suicide is discussed.

Gender and Jail Work: Correctional Policy Implications of Perceptual Diversity in the Work Force

Although women now represent a significant proportion of many (if not most) jail staffs, the degree to which their perceptions of corrections work differs from males' remains largely unexplored. In this paper, we compare female and male jail staff perceptions regarding the stress associated with work in jails, the job satisfaction to be derived from jail work, the job environment experienced in jails and the level of commitment to jail facilities across five jail settings. Our findings show important gender‐based similarities and differences that need to be understood to maximize the benefits of the work force diversity that women bring to the corrections profession.

Jail Utilization Over Time: An Assessment Of The Patterns In Male And Female Populations

This study examines jail populations over time. More specifically, the purpose of this analysis is to identify cycles of local jail utilization for male and female populations. The identification of regularities in jail utilization is accomplished through the use of a finite Fourier spectral density function. This analysis is conducted on a large Midwestern jail for 1525 days from 1982 through 1986. The results show there are significant regular patterns in both the male and female populations. These results allow one to conclude that the stability of punishment hypothesis appears to be an appropriate conceptualization for the jail setting. They also demonstrate there may be a cyclical regularity in jail utilization.

Conceptualizing Psychosocial Nursing in the Jail Setting

1. The deinstitutionalization movement led to the release of thousands of mentally ill patients, many of whom were incarcerated as a way of dealing with their disturbed behavior. More restrictive civil commitment laws have also contributed to the number of mentally ill who are incarcerated. 2. Health care and security can be perceived as competing interests in the correctional institution. These competing interests may also be perceived as sources of conflict because each interest aims towards divergent goals that interfere with the other. 3. A problem central to the inadequate services for the mentally ill offender is that few people are aware of the poor conditions for this population. Correctional and mental health organizations must educate the public about the plight of the mentally ill offender.

AIDS Education in the Jail Setting

This article describes some of the obstacles to and advantages of providing effective human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) education programs in jails. The description is based on a six-module, multisession program directed to injection drug users in the Maricopa County (Phoenix, AZ) jail as part of a large research and demonstration project funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Some preliminary analyses of longitudinal data from Phoenix are presented. The results suggest that an evaluation of jail-based education focusing on safer needle usage and sex practices must be very thoughtfully designed and implemented.

HIV-1 Infection In The Correctional Setting

HIV infection is a major public health problem in prisons and jails. In several correctional systems, AIDS has become the leading cause of death. Seroprevalence estimates for different systems in the United States and Europe range form 0 percent to 18 percent among inmates entering prison, indicating geographic variation. Reported HIV rates are higher among females compared to males, among inmates over 25 years, and among racial/ethnic minorities. The major established risk behavior for HIV infection among prison inmates is a history of pre-incarceration intravenous drug use. The prison and jail setting provides an opportunity to educate, counsel, test, and treat individuals at risk for HIV infection who otherwise might have a very limited access to care. Services to this population must be voluntary and confidential.

Computer coping skills training in a jail setting

This study examined the differences between a generic computerized coping skills training program and one tailored for an incarcerated population. A commercially produced computerized coping skills training program designed for general public usage was modified to address the unique needs of a jail inmate population. The mental health status of jail inmates trained in the modified program was compared with that of those trained in the unmodified program to assess the effectiveness of the two computer coping skills training programs. The results of the research, along with a discussion of the findings and their implications are presented.

INTEGRATING COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES INTO LOCAL JAILS: A POLICY PERSPECTIVE

Across t h e nation, the number o f mentally ill inmates in local jails has increased over the past decade. Moreover, mentally ill inmates are not typically receiving adequate services from either the jail or mental health service systems. In response to the problem, several jurisdictions are attempting to utilize community mental health (CMH) services to provide treatment for these inmates. This paper discusses organizational problems inherent to integrating CMH services into jails and recommends approaches for dealing with those problems. Much of the information and thinking in this paper is based upon the recent experience of the authors with the Michigan Department of Mental Health and local jails as trainers and consultants in integrating CMH workers into jail settings.

The Inmate Subculture in Jails

There is a long line of prison research addressing the nature and correlates of the “inmate subculture”—the adherence of inmates to a set of norms that reflect opposition to institutional rules and staff. This article presents preliminary findings on variability in adherence to inmate norms among the populations of three local jails—environments that are characterized by shorter stays and more rapid inmate turnover than are prisons. The findings suggest that positive orientations toward inmate subcultural norms in jail settings are mostly attributable to experienced inmates who are already familiar with the norms when they enter the jail and who readapt to the norms after determining that they will not be gaining their freedom immediately.

Local Corrections

The present study is an assessment of detainee preferences as observed within three jail settings. Individuals were sampled who, prior to the dates of testing, had been detained for five days or less. To assess these individuals' preferences, a modified version of Toch's “Prison Preference Inventory” was employed. This instrument was administered to groups of sampled inmates during a series of weekly sessions held at each facility. The responses of the detainees surveyed revealed a pattern of preferences similar to that which has been obtained among prison inmates. This similarity was also revealed in the analyses conducted across detainees' backgrounds, in that preferences were found to vary as a function of respondents' race and prior exposure to confinement. Yet in spite of these differences according to background, little variation in preference was revealed across the three facilities surveyed. Of additional note is the finding that among the eight concerns assessed, support via program opportunities was the most highly preferred factor. This greater preference for support was observed within each facility surveyed as well as in each category of detainee that was compared.

Sexism and medical care in a jail setting.

As part of a study on health conditions in women's prisons, comparisons were made of outcomes of clinic visits by male and female prisoners in New York City jails on Rikers' Island. Despite a basic similarity in health problems, significant differences were found between the sexes in terms of number of clinicians with whom they had interaction, access to a physician, and access to treatment of any sort. Men were four times as likely to be seen by a physician and twice as likely to receive treatment. A general pattern of sex bias was determined to exist. Staffing patterns, clinic access and diagnostic bias are examined as possible explanations for the differences in care.

Drug histories and criminality of inmates of local jails in the United States (1978): implications for treatment and rehabilitation of the drug abuser in a jail setting.

A survey by the Department of Justice in 1978 of inmates of local jails in the United States found that 68% had ever used drugs like heroin, cocaine, marijuana, amphetamines, or barbiturates outside a treatment program, and without a doctor's prescription. Offenses for which relatively larger proportions of inmates reported drug use included robbery, burglary, auto theft, larceny, and drug offenses. During the month prior to jail, 44% of inmates reported using drugs. Some 21% of convicted inmates reported being under the influence of drugs at the time of an offense for which convicted. One-fourth of inmates reporting drug use had ever been enrolled in drug treatment. Treatment and rehabilitation of the drug abuser in a jail setting is discussed.

Institutional Misconducts and Anxiety Levels Among Jailed Inmates

The present investigation reports upon various aspects of incarceration within a jail setting. In the first study, variables that were associated with the occurrence of institutional misconducts were documented by comparing a group of inmates committing misconducts with inmates having no history of misconducts. A number of personal and demographic differences were observed between the groups, but no relationship between crowding and the occurrence of a misconduct was found. The second study investigated the effect of incarceration and sentencing upon the inmates' anxiety level. Sixty-one inmates formed four groups varying on two independent variables: pretest and sentence. Significant effects due to incarceration and sentencing were absent.

The PACE Employment Program: An Inmate‐Employer Mutual Development Strategy

The PACE Employment Program, funded by the Office of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Post‐Secondary Education, brings together potential employers and employees in a jail setting. The program is administered by the PACE Institute, a private educational organization housed within the Cook County Jail (Chicago). The program seeks to strengthen the nontechnical employment skills of inmate‐students, while also sensitizing prospective employers to the value and employment potential of these students. This is done by having both groups participate in a variety of exercises related to the development and strengthening of personal and interpersonal skills.