Psychology in Prisons

1
Psychology in Prisons

• Carol Bond
• Area Psychologist
• Liverpool Hope MSc January 2005

2
Content

• Prison Service Context
• Psychological work in prisons
• Negotiation advisor role
• Individual CBT work in prisons
• Group working
• Research
• Issues when working in prisons

3
HM Prison Service - Context

• On 07.01.05 the prison population was 73,085
• Of these are women
• This was an increase of 607 since the equivalent
  Friday one year ago.
•       
• Friday 7 January 2005 there were 6,173 prisoners
  in High Security Prisons.

4109 (5.6)
4
Context

• There are 140 prison establishments
• Of these 17 are for women
• 22 are for Young Offenders
• 101 are for adult male prisoners
• 10 are run by private providers
• All have to run to common national operating
  standards and rules

5
Context

• Prisoners on remand through to life sentence
  (longest serving is over 40 years)
• Young people from 15 years to elderly pensioners
  (80)
• UK and foreign nationals (language issues)
• Women with children (up to 18 months)
• Various disabilities and special needs

6
Context

• Mental health problems
• Drug dependency (80 of women!)
• Learning difficulties
• Literacy and numeracy problems
• Personality disorder
• Dual diagnosis

7
Context

• 40,00 staff
• Officers
• Managers
• Admin staff
• Chaplains
• Industrial staff
• Psychologists (400)
• Contractors
• Health centre staff - Educationalists
• Resettlement workers - Counsellors
• Catering staff

8
Areas Within the Prison
9
Traditional Roles for Forensic (Prison)
Psychologists
Staff counselling
Training
Research Negotiation advisor
Information reports
Group-work Individual Interventions
10

• What are the ethical considerations about risk
  assessment reports?
• Consent
• Confidentiality
• Client

11
Negotiation Advisors

• Specialised role usually C Psychol
• Train staff in negotiation techniques
• Advise in various incidents hostage, barricade,
  roof-top, sit-down etc
• Psychologists are not negotiators
• PS has a set strategy cant be too specific!

12
Generalised rules for negotiation

• Predominant skill required is active listening
  understand and care about the individual
• Emotion labelling e.g. you sound angry
• you seem
  hurt
• I hear
  frustration
• Paraphrasing let me check I understand
• Reflecting/mirroring use their words
• Silence
• Minimal Encouragers
• I messages I feel.when youbecause.
• Open-ended questions

13
General Negotiation Strategies

• Contain need a secure area
• Isolate redcue contact with anyone outside
  situation
• Negotiate Establish communication
• Reduce emotions
• Build a relationship
• Pursuasion techniques

14
Tasks of NA

• Advise on strategy/type of incident
• Provide profile of perpetrator
• Anti-social personality disorder
• Borderline personality disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Depression
• Support negotiators
• Support other members of management team
• Provide post-incident debrief
• Ensure post-incident care for those involved

15
Addressing Re-offending through the prison regime

• Link with employment Work Skills
  programme/reinforce programmes aims in workshops
• Clark (2000) reduce recidivism through basic
  literacy (if targeted)
• Closer family links -
• Substance abuse factors
• Anti-social attitudes pro-social modelling (
  legitimacy)

16
Life Sentenced Prisoners

• Risk assessment
• Structured risk assessment approach (e.g. HCR-20)
• Assess level of risk and advise risk
  reduction/management strategies
• Mental Health
• Offending Behaviour Focus
• Preparation for release resettlement

17
Mental Health

• Lifers more disturbed than other prisoners
  (Swinton 1994) personality disorder and
  psychoses
• Uncertainty of indeterminate sentence (structure
  expectations reassure)
• Adapt to long-term sentence (does not damage
  to strong but further damages weak)
• Bereavement issues (refer on)
• Guilt (Some CBT some live with it)
• Suicide (Crighton 2000) higher risk of completing
  (16 of suicides are lifers)

18
Offending Behaviour Focus

• Need to focus on offenders point of view
• CBT basis / functional analysis
• Personal construct theory
• Can feel unfocussed / vague
• Behavioural Diagnosis (Kanfer Saslow 1969)

19

• Stage
• Initial analysis of offending behaviour
• Clarification of the problem situation
• Motivational Analysis
• Developmental analysis

• Issues to be covered
• Description of the offending behaviour
• Conditions of the offencewhen, where, how it
  occurred, the immediate precursors consequences
• Internal and external factors which motivated
  offending behaviour, reinforcers of behaviour
• Family, social and interpersonal history, key
  life events, patterns and changes relevant to
  offending behaviour

20

• Analysis of self-control
• Analysis of social relationships
• Analysis of social-cultural-physical environment

• Level and pattern of control the offender has
  over offending behaviour, thoughts and emotions
• Significant relationships, support, peer
  environment
• Social norms and attitudes in the offenders
  normal environment, interaction with offending
  behaviour

21
Preparation for Release and Resettlement

• Lifers spent longer in prison than others e.G.
  Budgeting, socialising
• Requirement to move to another area can compound
  resettlement problems
• Nature of offence can restrict opportunities for
  housing, employment and leisure
• As lifer nears release may have to adapt and
  strengthen strategies to avoid offending which
  have not been an issue during long sentence
• Psychologists in community can help whilst on
  licence

22
Summary

• Variety of roles
• All based on application of psychological
  principals to the setting
• Structure of Prison Service may change under NOMS
  but principals will still apply

23

• The Gov thinks there has been a rise in the
  number of disciplinary infractions on the
  juvenile wing. What are some of the things that
  psychology could offer her?
• What specific problems do you think a
  psychologist may encounter working in a prison or
  other secure setting that may differ from a
  community setting?