The relationship between participation in structured activities and health, safety and quality of life outcomes for prison residents and staff

Does It Matter How People Spend Their Time in Prison? The Relationship Between Participation in Structured Activities and Health, Safety, and Quality of Life Outcomes for Prison Residents and Staff
 

State prison administrators face many challenges managing the 1.1 million people in their custody. To mitigate these issues, officials offer their incarcerated residents a range of programs and services intended to address criminogenic needs and to provide opportunities for prosocial, structured activities. A growing body of work has examined the efficacy of many of these interventions, such as education services, employment programs, cognitive-behavioral therapy, substance use disorder treatment, and sex offender treatment. However, there is limited research on the optimal dosage of these interventions for improving institutional safety and wellness. There is also little knowledge about how participation in various types of activities, or combinations of activities, can benefit the people who live and work in prisons.

To answer these questions, CNA will work with five state departments of corrections to survey incarcerated residents and correctional officers in 15 prison facilities and to collect administrative data from all 73 prisons in these states. The CNA team will then create detailed measures of how residents spend their time during incarceration, including their participation in a variety of structured (e.g., prison-based work, work release, case management, educational and vocational classes, programming and treatment, and visitation) and less structured (television, books, games, recreational time, religious services, and lock down) activities. The team will assess the degree to which specific dosages or combinations of activities affect outcomes related to incarcerated residents (misconduct, recidivism, mortality, mental and physical health, quality of life) and staff (mental and physical health, quality of life, job performance and satisfaction, and absenteeism/use of sick time).

This project will significantly advance knowledge about how to design and operate prison systems that are healthier and more effective for both residents and staff. The geographically representative, multisite design of this study also increases confidence in the generalizability of its results to a wide range of US prison systems. CA/NCF