Who requests psychological services upon admission to prison?

Abstract

Federal Bureau of PrisonsStructuring a system of psychological services for offenders and releasees requires an understanding of the offenders who voluntarily seek psychological services upon admission. To begin to develop such an understanding, a sample set of responses to the Psychological Services Inmate Questionnaire (PSIQ) from 2,674 newly committed male and female federal offenders were examined. About one-tenth of the sample made a request for psychological services upon admission to prison without a mandate or referral, and confirm that a combination of prior mental health treatment and current symptoms are among the factors associated with making the request. Logistic regression analysis indicated male gender, receipt of mental health treatment prior to current incarceration, history of a head injury, current symptoms of depression, hopelessness, nervousness, sleeping problems, and racing thoughts, were independent and significant predictors of service request. Implications for future corrections research, clinical training and practice are discussed.

Prevalence, associated factors and management of insomnia in prison populations: An integrative review

“…This finding reflects a similar pattern in the community [12]. Only two studies focused on women only [44,60] and three studies generated gender-specific prevalence rates [22,40,58]. Study samples, overall, were predominantly male and from white ethnic backgrounds.…”

“…With regards to criminogenic factors, three studies examined unconvicted and sentenced prisoners, finding that insomnia tended to be more common in the former [22, 43,44]. Overall, insomnia symptoms prevalence was higher in a prison population than in the general population (30%e 36%) [8] with the exception of just two studies (10.9% and around 20%) [40,51]. The former study identified this figure based on whether the prisoner had been prescribed hypnotic medication only and not by prisoner self-report of insomnia symptoms.…”

“…Some studies used unstandardised questionnaires [40,60,61,67] whilst others used discrete sub-sections of standardised general health measures including the clinical interview schedule (CIS-R) [22, 43,44]; HDRS [39]; ICPC-2 [51,58]; and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd edition (DSM-III) [73]. Although the HDRS and DSM-III are valid and reliable, the accuracy of the prevalence data is in doubt.…”

Traumatic Brain Injury and Executive Functioning in an Incarcerated Sample

“…The PSIQ also includes two checklists, one regarding drug use for the two years preceding arrest and one regarding the experience of any recent psychological symptoms. The PSIQ is completed prior to a clinical interview with a BOP doctoral-level psychologist which allows the psychologist to review the inmate's selfreported prior history, along with other criminal and mental health records, in advance of the clinical interview (Diamond, Magaletta, Harzke, & Baxter, 2008).…”

“…The Office of Research and Evaluation of the BOP provided SENTRY data after they were provided with identification numbers for all inmates participating in the study. Four independent coders were trained to code data from PSIs onto the PSI-Coding Form (PSI-CF), and they were trained to achieve at least 80% reliability before they began coding data (Diamond et al, 2008;Magaletta et al, 2009).…”