Press Release from Open Minds

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"OPEN MINDS Weekly News Wire

Social Services

New Correctional Psychology Practice Standards Propose Staffing Ratios Based on Setting & Jail Population Size

New correctional psychology practice standards released by the International Association for Forensic and Correctional Psychology (IAFCP) have proposed guidelines for staffing ratios for specific correctional settings and jail population sizes. The guidelines recommended that prisons have at least one full-time qualified mental health care professional for every 150 to 160 adult inmates. For specialized units providing drug treatment or care for inmates with mental illness, the guidelines recommended that correctional facilities have one full-time mental health care professional for every 50 to 75 inmates. For juvenile facilities, the guidelines recommended a minimum ratio of one full-time mental health professional for every 60 to 75 juvenile offenders in the general population and one full-time qualified mental health professional for every 20 to 25 juveniles in a special management unit.

Additionally, the standards proposed staffing ratios for jails based on the average daily population. The recommendation called for jails with average daily populations of more than 125 offenders to have at least one full-time licensed psychologist for each 125 inmates in the general population. The standards commended that jails with lower daily populations have a contract licensed psychologist available as follows:

• At least 16 hours weekly for populations between 76 and 125
• At least eight hours weekly for daily jail populations between 11 and 75
• An on-call licensed psychologist was recommended for jails with fewer than 10 offenders per day

The staffing ratios were among guidelines for psychology services in jails, prisons, and correctional agencies released by the IAFCP in a revision of its standards for correctional psychology; it is the second revision since 1980. The revised standards have been updated to inform administrators and clinical professionals about issues relevant to providing optimal mental health services in jails, prisons, correctional facilities, and in other organizations serving offenders. The topics addressed organizational policies and ethical principles, intake screening, staffing rations, mental health services, suicide prevention and intervention, records, research, and references.

The revised standards, “Standards for Psychology Services in Jails, Prisons, Correctional Facilities, and Agencies” were released by the IAFCP Practice Standards Committee in July 2010 in a special issue of the journal Criminal Justice and Behavior. A key trigger for the revision was the realization that three large prisons—Riker's Island in New York, Cook County Jail in Chicago, and the Los Angeles County Jail—were the largest mental health institutions in the United States. Nearly 15% of the offenders in these facilities have been identified as a suicide risk or diagnosed with serious mental illness, such as bipolar disorder, psychosis, or severe depression. The committee, chaired by IAFCP President Richard Althouse, Ph.D., designed the revised standards to help correctional facilities maintain institutional security, increase the likelihood of successful re-entry, and reduce the likelihood of civil litigation that can result from providing inadequate correctional mental health services.

Founded in 1954, the IACFP has been seeking to promote and support the development of effective treatment approaches for offenders, psychological practice in criminal justice and law enforcement settings, and to stimulate research into the nature of criminal behavior. Its approximately 500 members include behavioral scientists and practitioners who are concerned with the delivery of high-quality mental health services to criminal offenders, and with promoting and disseminating research on the etiology, assessment and treatment of criminal behavior.

The full text of the revised standards may be accessed on-line at http://cjb.sagepub.com/content/37/7/749.full.pdf+html (accessed August 3, 2010).

For more information, contact: Richard Althouse, Ph.D., President, International Association for Forensic and Correctional Psychology, 548 Linden Street, Verona, Wisconsin 53593; E-mail: goldmine123.a@gmail.com; Website: www.ia4cfp.org.

New Correctional Psychology Practice Standards Propose Staffing Ratios Based on Setting & Jail Population Size. (2010, August 9). OPEN MINDS Weekly News Wire.

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