Research in police custody risk assessment and health screening has historically been focused on detainees arrival in custody with much less emphasis on pre-release risk assessment (PRRA). This research aimed to evaluate a modified PRRA piloted in one police station in the North East of England for two weeks in March/April 2019 against College of Policing’s Authorised Professional Practice (APP) guidance. A controlled before and after study design was conducted. During the intervention phase, custody suite (A) piloted the modified PRRA whilst control custody suite (B) continued to use standard PRRA. Randomised, anonymised custody records were analysed; 300 records were taken from each suite during the intervention phase, and a further 300 from each suite during the period preceding intervention. PRRA records were scored against criteria derived from the College of Policing’s APP guidance. Improvements were seen in seven outcomes with greatest effects observed in recording risks associated with mental health, physical health and substance misuse.
SUMMARY
Mental disorders are overrepresented in the criminal justice system, and this applies equally to police custody. These environments are complex and often pressured, and the acuity of the situation, combined with underlying mental disorders, comorbid medical problems and substance misuse, can lead to behavioural disturbance and increased psychiatric risk. Police custody may also present an opportunity to identify and signpost people with mental disorders and vulnerabilities who are ordinarily hard to reach by standard health services. This article considers the purposes of mental health screening of detainees in police custody. It gives an overview of research into screening for a range of psychiatric disorders and vulnerabilities (including substance misuse and traumatic brain injury) and summarises data on deaths in and immediately following release from custody. Given the inadequacy of statutory screening procedures in some jurisdictions, the authors offer a pragmatic evidence-based protocol to guide screening for mental disorders in custody detainees.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.