Assessing the Behavior and Needs of Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injury in Washington State Prisons: Establishing a Foundation for Policy, Practice, and Education

Abstract

A growing awareness of justice-involved veterans is revealing how little is known about this population, to what extent they have experienced a traumatic brain injury (TBI), and how this may relate to institutional behavior, participation in programs, and use of institutional resources. The current study identifies the prevalence of incarcerated veterans in Washington State who have experienced a TBI and how a TBI history may affect their prison experience and use of prison resources. The results of our study show that incarcerated veterans in Washington State with a moderate-to-severe TBI are more likely to use medical services, commit violent infractions, be placed in maximum custody (solitary confinement), and less likely to complete vocational and job skills programs. The importance of these findings to policy and practice is discussed.

Keywords:

• Corrections
• prison adjustment
• traumatic brain injury
• veterans

Acknowledgments

The authors of this study wish to thank the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services’ Traumatic Brain Injury Council for grant assistance in funding this research. We are also grateful for the work of those at the Washington State Department of Corrections Office of Research for their assistance with data collection and technical support. A special thanks to Teri Herold-Prayer, Holly Delcambre, Mike Evans, Susan Koenig, and Andrew Phillips for initiating and supporting this project through completion. In addition, we fully appreciate the work of Michael Campagna of the Washington State Institute for Criminal Justice Research at Washington State University for managing the WADOC record data.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

During the 2014-2015 budget year, the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services Traumatic Brain Injury Council forecasted that they would have surplus budget funds available at the end of the fiscal year (30 June 2015). Rather than give that money back to DSHS, the TBI Council decided to allocate the money through a competitve grant process open to scholars across the state of Washington. Thus, these were one-time funds awarded on a competitve basis. While the DSHS TBI Council is a standing committee funded by both state budget allocation and state fees, it does not regularly give out large awards through a competitve grant process. Therefore, Open Funder Registry's inability to identify it as a grant based organization is consistent with the realities of the DSHS TBI Council.

Notes

1 Maximum security units are commonly known in the literature as segregation or solitary confinement.

2 We were unable to differentiate ethnicity in the data. Therefore, it is unknown how Latino is distributed throughout the race variable. Unfortunately, race is captured via a White compared to all other races variable.

3 The veteran population in our study appears to differ from the general inmate population. Our sample is older (49 versus 38 years old) and more likely to be male (98 vs. 92%), white (79 vs. 72%), serving a life sentence (33 vs. 16%), and more likely to be assessed low risk to reoffend (54 vs. 15%) when compared to the general population (WADOC, 2016).

4 Although a general anecdotal belief exists that incarcerated veterans receive dishonorable discharges from military service, our results show that the majority of incarcerated veterans (54%) were released from the military with honorable, general, or medical discharges. Interestingly, nearly a third of the discharge type is unknown. This appears to be due to self-report data not recorded in the WADOC’s records.

5 Mann–Whitney test: U = 85,818.500; p=.013; r=.08 (effect size).

6 Mann–Whitney test: U = 83,689.000; p=.031; r=.07 (effect size)

7 Maximum custody is used for the purposes of protection and as a sanction for serious disciplinary infractions. With the current data we cannot distinguish between these two reasons for being placed in maximum custody.

8 Mann–Whitney test: U = 71,787.000; p=.050; r= −0.06 (effect size).

9 Mann–Whitney test: U = 85,512.500; p=.018; r=.08 (effect size).

10 Mann–Whitney test: U = 82,170.500; p=.030; r=.07 (effect size).

11 Approximately 20% of the mental illness stability data were missing for our sample. Please interpret these results with caution.

12 Inmates who fight, whether they are the aggressor or the defender, may receive an infraction and spend time in maximum custody. Thus, the results of our study do not indicate whether TBI veterans are more or less likely to initiate violent interactions.

13 Incarcerated veterans are not allowed to receive veterans’ benefits while imprisoned, but they are still eligible to have a portion of their benefits distributed to their dependents. Any benefits received directly by the inmate while incarcerated must be paid back upon release. “Payback” is accomplished by withholding benefits from the veteran and his/her family until the full amount is returned to the government. Assisting veterans with their benefit distribution can assist in supporting their families and assuring the continuation of benefits upon their release.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Laurie A. Drapela

Laurie A. Drapela is an Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at Washington State University Vancouver. Her research areas include juvenile justice, therapeutic specialty court programs, and the intersections between behavioral health, mental health, and criminal justice. She is currently under contract with University of British Columbia Press to produce a book on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and youth in the juvenile justice system. Her work appears in journals such as Crime & Delinquency, Youth & Society, the Journal of Youth & Adolescence, and Deviant Behavior.

Faith E. Lutze

Faith E. Lutze, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University. Her current research interests include community corrections, homelessness and reentry, correctional industries and offender employment, incarcerated veterans with traumatic brain injury, drug courts, and gender and justice with an emphasis on masculinity. Dr. Lutze is the author of the book, The Professional Lives of Community Corrections Officers: The Invisible Side of Reentry (2014) and has published the results of her research in various journals including Criminal Justice and Behavior, Justice Quarterly, Crime & Delinquency, Criminology and Public Policy, Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, and the Journal of Criminal Justice. She teaches courses on gender and justice, violence toward women, and corrections. She is active in the community supporting violence prevention programs, promoting equality, and serving her rural community as an emergency medical technician.

Elizabeth Thompson Tollefsbol

Elizabeth Thompson Tollefsbol is a PhD candidate in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University and an adjunct instructor for the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Gonzaga University. Her areas of interest include incarcerated veterans, gender responsivity and pathways research, offender assessment, and policy effectiveness within the justice system. She is also a Senior Research Associate with the Washington State Institute for Criminal Justice where, through funding by the US Department of Justice, she has examined the implementation of Smart Justice programming in Washington State.

Nicholas Pimley

Nicholas Pimley is a PhD student in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University. His areas of interest include juvenile justice, diversionary programs, offender reentry, and legal issues. He has also taught courses in American crime control policy and American criminal courts.