Male prisoners with (n = 132) and without (n = 132) histories of engaging in self-injurious behavior (SIB) were matched on conviction prefix and custody level. Conditional logistic regression revealed that a combination of risk factors from domains defined by developmental, offense history, mental health, and institutional functioning factors correctly classified 93% of the prisoners in the sample (ROC AUC = 0.89, S.E. = 0.005, p < 0.0001). Model specificity was 92.6% and sensitivity was 95.3%. False positive and false negative rates were 2.3% and 3.4%, respectively. Implications for the assessment of prisoners at risk for SIB as well as suggested future directions for SIB prisoner research are discussed.

This study examined the association of extent of prisoner self-injurious behavior (SIB) and placement in long-term maximum-security administrative segregation. A prisoner subgroup (n=132) defined by extent of SIB was matched by conviction prefix and security level to a group of prisoners who had never engaged in SIB (n=132) and compared on selected variables. Relative to prisoners who either engaged in less extensive SIB or none at all, prisoners who engaged in three or more forms of SIB while in prison were found to be twice as likely to be housed in long-term administrative segregation, less educated, began their criminal careers at an earlier age, engaged in more violence in the community and in prison, involved in property destruction, and experienced a much greater degree of housing instability in prison.

The current study examined the relationship between risk factors for prisoner self-injurious behavior (SIB) and the amount of time male prisoners function without engaging in SIB (SIB-free time), and obtained estimates of SIB-free time for selected SIB prisoner subgroups dependent on their housing status. Conditional Cox regression analysis revealed that a risk model consisting of developmental, mental health=health, legal=offense, and institutional functioning factors accounted for 56% of the difference in risk between SIB (n ¼ 132) and non-SIB male prisoners (n ¼ 132) who were matched according to security level and conviction prefix, estimating a SIB risk probability of .50 at !36 months of SIB-free time. Survival analyses revealed that administrative segregation placement drastically reduced SIB-free periods for certain SIB prisoner subgroups. Some potential practice implications for correctional mental health and security=classification professionals and directions for future research are discussed.