Mental disorder and prisons

Screening for personality disorder in probationers: Validation of the Standardised Assessment of Personality—Abbreviated Scale (SAPAS)

“…Overall, there may be a considerable number of personality disordered individuals within the UK national probation system. Our findings are broadly similar to studies of PD within the UK prison system, which have reported that about 66% to 73% of inmates score positive for any PD (Roberts et al, 2008;Ullrich et al, 2008) and also estimates of PD in the prison population worldwide of around 65% (Fazel & Danesh, 2002). Although our sample size was adequate for a validation study, it did not allow us to examine the prevalence of PD among probationers with any degree of precision and assertions about the overall prevalence of PD in our sample should be made cautiously.…”

Depression in elderly life sentence prisoners

“…Prolonged sentences gradually compromise adult competency (Birmingham, 2004), and the experience of long-term prisoners is predominantly characterised by exclusion, hence it is possible to envisage imprisonment, combined with the prospect of serving a long sentence, impacting adversely on mood. However, in contrast to the empirical findings in several studies (Sapsford et al, 1978(Sapsford et al, , 1983 showing a positive association between time served and affective flatness in a group of 'long-termers' the prevalence of depression was unrelated to length of sentence served.…”

Barriers to positive mental health in a Young Offenders Institution: A qualitative study

“…While it is difficult to contemplate positive mental health among prisoners, prison should provide an opportunity for individuals to be helped towards a sense of personal development without harming themselves or others 4 . There is however a contradiction, as imprisonment by its very nature has a detrimental impact on mental health 5 , with research suggesting that the prison environment itself is a barrier to the promotion of good health 6 .…”