NCJ Number
130342
Journal
Journal of Psychiatry and Law Volume: 17 Issue: 3 Dated: (Fall 1989) Pages: 413-433
Date Published
1989
Length
21 pages
Annotation
Prisoners requiring intensive psychiatric care are one of the most difficult populations to manage in terms of manpower, resources, and potential liabilities.
Abstract
One approach to the construction of a disciplinary profile of the psychiatric inmate involves distinguishing between psychiatric and nonpsychiatric inmates. Studies usually compare psychiatric inmates with the prison's general population and find that the mentally ill are more disruptive as evidenced by more extensive disciplinary records. In the current study, disciplinary records were obtained for a sample of psychiatric inpatients having at least one major disciplinary action in the 6-month period covering September 1987 through February 1988. Disciplinary records on nonpsychiatric inmates provided a comparison group. Findings revealed that psychiatric inmates had higher rates of the most serious offenses involving staff assaults and weapon possession but not of escape and inmate assaults. Psychiatric inmates had low rates of disobeying orders and breaking rules, but had higher rates of vulgar language use. Overall, the study did not find significant differences by race across offense levels for either psychiatric or nonpsychiatric inmates. Disciplinary histories of the psychiatric patients are discussed using Toch's model of the "disturbed disruptive" inmate. The difference between this study and previous efforts is that an attempt is made to control for disruptiveness. 29 notes and 3 tables (Author abstract modified)