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 it created and validated a risk assessment instrument to predict an inmate's likelihood for placement in restrictive housing during commitment.
Most correctional scholars and policy-makers agree that prison authorities should use restrictive housing less; yet few studies have provided guidance on how to do so while also ensuring institutional order. The findings of the current study support the predictive validity of the proposed tool. 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)