NCJ Number
179241
Date Published
1998
Length
27 pages
Annotation
The management of dangerous psychopaths in prison is examined with respect to the approaches used in the United Kingdom and North America and the role of mental health professionals.
Abstract
A small proportion of prisoners cannot be managed in ordinary prison locations due their persistently difficult and dangerous behavior. A small subgroup are psychotic, but the majority are psychopaths. One study of such inmates was the English Special Units Study, which took place between 1987 and 1993. The two main approaches used for dangerous and psychopathic prisoners include therapeutic units within prisons and units or entire prisons that offer security without therapeutic input. Programs in England, Scotland, Canada, and Colorado exemplify the different approaches used. These inmates often require security levels that exceed those in a maximum-security hospital. Management of these inmates in the prison setting can clearly benefit from input from mental health professionals. The alternative may be a management program with no therapeutic input and a regimen based entirely on behavioral control. Such a program may be stressful or unacceptable to correctional personnel. Future developments are required that use the situational approach to problem behavior and in which correctional staff and mental health professionals devise new therapeutic regimens. The settings must be safe for employees and inmates and must remain cost-effective in their reduction of inmates' behavioral disorders. 54 references