prison psychologists and biases in corrections

.....psychologists working in prisons in the United States, Boothby & Clements (2000) found some disturbing trends in corrections. Although the number of prison psychologists has doubled in the past twenty years, the vast majority of prison psychologists remain Caucasian males who may be unable to address the diverse needs of the incarcerated community. Biases and assumptions about inmates may also hinder the ability of inmates to seek and receive psychological treatment.

Moreover, a full third of prison psychologist work time is spent on administrative duties -- more than the time spent on direct treatment. Only 26% of their work time is devoted to directly treating the inmates, meaning that structural and institutional variables are impeding the delivery of quality mental health care to the prison community. Interestingly, the profession of clinical psychology was practically born in the prison context. As Magaletta, et al. (2016) point out, prison wardens partnered with psychologists seeking training opportunities and subjects for experiments since the early 20th century.

Prison psychologists have had at their disposal access to subjects for research into the endogenous and exogenous factors that may cause or contribute to criminal behavior. Prisoners have long been viewed as a relatively dispensable part of the human population and the lack of attention given to their treatment remains a major ethnical infraction (Magaletta, et al., 2016).

The psychological make-up of offenders, whose behavior may be symptomatic of underlying preexisting conditions ranging from mood disorders like anxiety and depression to personality disorders to psychoses, presents unique problems and challenges for prison administrators and correctional officers alike. Because criminal behavior can be the means by which mental illness first becomes recognized, it makes sense that a large number of inmates do suffer from some type of diagnosable mental illness.

Furthermore, offenders are more likely than non-offenders to be victims of crime, while victims of crime are also more likely than non-victims to be offenders: a pattern that has been noted throughout the literature (Entorf, 2013). Correctional officers lack the training and background in psychology to provide the daily support system for the inmates, which is why psychologists are the most frequently employed mental health professional in the correctional setting (Magaletta, et al., 2016).

Yet because of the gaps in providing quality mental health care in prisons, the needs of the diverse inmate population are not being met. Not meeting the needs of this cohort may stymie attempts to lower rates of recidivism and promote genuine rehabilitation and community reintegration. Similarly, a more robust community-based psychological program may help prevent some criminal behavior from occurring in the first place.

When precipitating factors like abuse, drug use, and mental illness are treated outside of the prison, it may be possible to reduce the number of offences by applying theories like Hirschi's general theory of crime (Armstrong, 2005). Unfortunately, the biases and assumptions of correctional service providers influence their assessment of and interaction with offenders. Boothby & Clements (2000) found that many of the correctional psychologists participating in their research did not adequately administer psychological assessments.

Due to the intense pressure of their work and the administrative duties the work entailed, psychologists were making intuitive judgments about personality disorders based on intake interviews. The psychologists would, for example, evaluate the prisoner's MMPI score without even administering the MMPI. The MMPI was, incidentally, the most commonly used personality assessment tool in the correctional facilities (Boothby & Clements, 2000). Correctional service providers may also be biased by their racial prejudices, which might cause problems not only in inaccurate assessments but also ineffective treatment interventions.

Many correctional service providers may fail to take into account the exogenous factors that can precipitate criminal behavior or exacerbate mental illnesses. On the other hand, endogenous factors might be misattributed to demographic characteristics and other superficial variables. When administrative duties become a full third of the prison psychologist's work, the work becomes less about treating individuals and more about bureaucracy. The root causes of the criminal behavior including structural and community variables are not being addressed.

Within the prison context, psychologists are barely able to construct programs and services for the inmates. Group therapy and educational interventions are underutilized, whereas 60% of all the treatment interventions in the prison setting tend to rely on individual therapy (Boothby & Clements, 2000). The criminal-based behavior patterns that are specific and unique to the prison population might reflect socio-economic trends in the community. Intervention strategies used to help the inmates can be coupled with strategies for enhancing correctional officers' training. If.