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Abstract
This study employed a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the impact of a modified START NOW program + behavioral level system (BLS) in a self-contained therapeutic community (SCTC) on inmate misbehavior at a correctional facility. The SCTC included a modified START NOW manualized mental health treatment, recreation groups, process groups as needed, and a level system on which to base the attainment of privileges. Inmate data was evaluated at 3-months pre- and post-SCTC to determine if there were differences in the number of mental health referrals for misbehavior, referrals to the restrictive housing unit, write-ups, instances of spontaneous use of force by correctional officers, and placement on suicide precaution status compared with a control group of inmates who were placed in restrictive housing during the same time frame. Analyses examined differences between these two groups comparing variables from pre-intervention to post-intervention timepoints. Both the modified START NOW + behavioral intervention group and the control group improved significantly from pre-to-post intervention on the number of placements in restrictive housing and number of write-ups for misbehavior but did not significantly improve on the remaining outcome measures. Study strengths and limitations are discussed.
Acknowledgements
This manuscript is based on the dissertation research of the first author under the supervision of the second author. We thank Catherine Kincaid, Carol Hilton, Cathy Elder, Erin Smith and Skylar Bills for research assistance. We thank dissertation committee members Drs. Amy Gentzler, Cheryl McNeil, and Karen Weiss. We appreciate the statistical consultation of Christa Lilly.
Conflict of interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.