Governing the Captives: Forensic Psychiatric Nursing in Corrections

Abstract

As an object of "governmental technologies", the nursing staff becomes the body onto which a process of conforming to the customs of the correctional milieu is dictated and inscribed. The results of this qualitative research, from a nursing perspective, are the first of their kind to be reported in Canada since the creation of the Regional Psychiatric Correctional Units in 1978.

The culture of fear: expanding the concept of risk in forensic psychiatric nursing

“…Those who become captives of these institutions will be submitted to a process that seeks to reconfigure behaviours, thoughts and motivations according to a predetermined set of institutional agenda. If this process has originally been attributed to the experiential progression of mentally-ill individuals in asylums, Holmes (2005) suggests that processes of mortification also affect nursing staff working in forensic psychiatric environments, a finding corroborated by the results of this research.…”

“…Therefore, previously defined social representations of the self are stripped upon entrance into the total institution and are replaced by this internal culture. As the research results suggest, once nurses enter forensic psychiatric environments, they are immersed in a culture of risk (Holmes, 2001(Holmes, , 2005Homes & Federman, 2003;Mason, 2002;Perron, 2008). Over time, nurses developed a new clinical scheme of reference that is rooted in suspicion and a subsequent heightened sense of awareness.…”

To be Strategically Struggling against Resignation: The Lived Experience of Being Cared for in Forensic Psychiatric Care

“…There are several studies that focus on the complex nature of forensic psychiatric nursing, the dilemma of providing custodial care, whether the care given is perceived as care or control (cf. Burrow, 1991;Holmes, 2005;Maroney, 2005), and the ethical dilemma of providing custodial care (cf. Fisher, 1995;Austin, 2001;Peternelj-Taylor, 2004).…”

Challenges in Residential Treatment for Prisoners With Mental Illness: A Follow-up Report

“…Each of these problems relate directly or indirectly to what has been eloquently described as a "custody-care" dilemma (Holmes, 2005;Mason, 2002;Martin, 2003): the perceived or real tensions between often competing and always compelling demands, including an overwhelming emphasis on security and control as paramount concerns for prison administrators and staff.. This conflict also reflects administrative decisions and resulting changes to the infrastructure, organization, and delivery of the program itself.…”