Reducing Institutional Disorder: Using the Inmate Risk Assessment for Segregation Placement to Triage Treatment Services at the Front End of Prison Sentences

• NCJ Number: 253303
• Author(s): Ryan M. Labrecque; Paula Smith
• Date Published: 2017
• Length: 9 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2014-IJ-CX-0003
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Description
• Award: Reducing Prison Misconduct with Evidence-Based Administrative Segregation Policies

Annotation

This study advances the idea that proactively providing rehabilitative programming to inmates at the front end of prison sentences will help reduce institutional disorder, and in so doing, it creates and validates a risk assessment instrument to predict inmate likelihood for placement in restrictive housing during commitment.

Abstract

Most correctional scholars and policymakers agree that prison authorities should use restrictive housing less, yet few studies provide guidance on how to do so while also ensuring institutional order. The findings of the current study support the predictive validity of the tool. It argues that authorities can use this assessment to make more informed and targeted programming decisions during the intake process that will help reduce institutional misconduct and the need for restrictive housing. (publisher abstract modified)