Evaluating Change in Social Climate in a Close Security State Correctional Facility

Assessing the Social Climate of Prisons

“…Other institutions have attempted to influence the social climate by introducing more "treatment focused" employees to the workforce (Clarke et al 2002b;Lang et al 2004). Waters and Megathlin (2002) found significant improvements in inmate perceptions of a prison social climate 22 months after rehabilitation workers were employed. Similarly, a meta-analysis of 68 studies assessing the effectiveness of correctional treatment revealed that settings that provided behavioural treatment programs delivered by professional staff experienced the lowest rates of prison misconduct (French & Gendreau 2006).…”

“…Despite the considerable appeal of notions of a therapeutic institutional milieu, prison culture, or social climate (Beech & Hamilton-Giachritsis 2005;Natarajan & Falkin 1997;Waters & Megathlin 2002), it has proven difficult to define and operationalise what is meant by these terms. The words "culture" and "climate" have, for example, often been used interchangeably (Lok & Crawford 2003;Parker et al 2003) despite subtle differences in meaning: Culture, for example, is most frequently understood as the overall philosophy and condition of an organisation or a collection of shared beliefs among organisational members which plays a central role in shaping organisational members' attitudes, perceptions, motivation, goals and behaviour (see Melnick et al 2009), whereas climate often refers to the perceptions of the organisation at an operational level, such as its ability to be supportive of new ideas and openness for change (see Taxman et al 2008).…”

“There’s More to It Than Just a Box Check”: Measuring Prison Climate in Three Correctional Facilities

“…Prison climate refers to a number of environmental and interpersonal contexts that reflect an atmosphere of various constraints and support features (Day, Casey, Vess, and Huisy (2012)); few U.S. researchers have begun to investigate the quality and consequences of contemporary prison environments. In a Georgia study, Waters and Megathlin (2002) attributed changes in social climate of one facility prior to, and 22 months after, addition of personnel who implemented numerous rehabilitation-type programs. They concluded that the presence of treatment personnel improved the correctional climate, which, in turn, promoted positive inmate adjustment.…”

A Review of Questionnaire Measures for Assessing the Social Climate in Prisons and Forensic Psychiatric Hospitals

“…These studies have the potential to reveal important information regarding whether the CIES/WAS is able to detect changes/differences in the social climate that would theoretically be expected (referred to as responsiveness). Eight studies examined the impact of various interventions on the social climate of secure settings, with statistically significant changes observed in CIES/WAS scores from pre-to postintervention in 6 of these studies (Barton & Mackin, 2012;Blumenthal, Ruszczynski, Richards, & Brown, 2011;Coughlin, 2003;Nesset, Rossberg, Almvik, & Friis, 2009;Ray, Wandersman, Ellisor, & Huntington, 1982;Waters & Megathlin, 2002). The most relevant of these studies demonstrated statistically significant changes to the social climate following an intervention that was designed to increase staff awareness of the therapeutic environment and its impact on residents' rehabilitation (Nesset et al, 2009).…”