Reintegrating Seriously Violent and Personality-Disordered Offenders From a Supermaximum Security Institution Into the General Offender Population

• NCJ Number: 210599
• Journal: International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology Volume: 49 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2005 Pages: 362-375
• Author(s): Stephen C. P. Wong; Sarah Vander Veen; Timothy A. Leis; Heather Parrish; Deqiang Gu; Elizabeth Usher Liber; Heather L. Middleton
• Date Published: August 2005
• Length: 14 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article reports on the evaluation of a transitional strategy for reintegrating violent and personality-disordered inmates from a supermaximum-security institution into the general inmate population in a lower security institution.

Abstract

Inmates who have committed violent acts while in prison are often segregated and housed in supermaximum-security facilities. At some point, there may be a decision to remove such inmates from high-security status for humane, correctional, and financial reasons. This article proposes a transitional strategy that uses a maximum-security, step-down, treatment-oriented facility within which security requirements and treatment needs of the transitioning inmate are met. An evaluation was conducted of such a program in Canada's Regional Psychiatric Centre (RPC), which is a maximum-security institution within the Correctional Service of Canada. The RPC is an accredited inpatient mental health facility in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. There are four other similar facilities that provide assessment and specialized treatment programs for offenders with major mental illnesses, sexual offenders, violent offenders, and female offenders. For the current study, 31 male Federal offenders transferred from a supermaximum-security facility to the RPC between 1990 and 1998 were monitored. Offenders were considered to have successfully reintegrated into the general inmate population if they were not transferred from a lower security institution back to the supermaximum-security facility during the follow-up period (mean follow-up time of 21.3 months). Twenty-two of the 31 offenders were transferred from the RPC to a lower security institution. During the follow-up period, there were significant reductions in the number and severity of institutional offense rates, suggesting the effectiveness of the transitional strategy. 1 table, 1 figure, 19 references, and appended clinical guidelines for a transition program