TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS IN

INSTITUTIONAL CORRECTIONSAre New Advances in Information Technology transforming the U.S.

Prison System?

The New Technology of Inmate Classification

Size of Prison Population: With over 2.5 million inmates currently under institutional control in this country, it is clear that imprisonment is viewed as an appropriate sanction for individuals convicted of a variety of crimes (violent, drug, property, public order).

Number of Prisons: To efficiently impose this sanction, the U.S. currently has over 5000 adult prison and jails, each with its own unique design features, staffing ratios, design and operational capacity, offender population characteristics, and resource level.

Classification: In each of these facilities, classification decisions are made that directly affect the level of violence and disorder in prison.

External Classification Systems

Objective external classification systems are currently used by all federal and state prison systems in this country to determine the initial level of security/ control needed over the incoming prisoner population.

Based on the offender’s overall assessment “score” he/she is assigned to a minimum, medium, maximum, or super-max prison facility.

How do we classify prisoners?

We look at the following factors: The seriousness of the commitment

offense, sentence length, The offender’s criminal history, Escape history, Prior incarceration history, Special monitoring needs (due to security

threat assessment, gang affiliation, potential victimization, etc.),

Initial Prisoner Location Decisions

We can learn a great deal about a prison system by closely examining how and why inmate location decisions are made.

According to a recent nationwide review of prison classification systems conducted by Austin and McGinnis (2004), approximately 80 percent of the current federal and state prison population are identified as being appropriate for location in the general prison population;

These inmates are placed in minimum (35%), medium (35%) and maximum security facilities (10%; about 1% in super-max facilities)

Special Prison Populations

Approximately 15% of all inmates are classified (or reclassified) as special populations requiring separate housing away from the general population of prisoners;

These inmates are placed in administrative segregation (6%), protective custody (2%), and facilities designed specifically for inmates with severe mental health (2%) or medical problems (2%).

Recent Trends in Special Populations: Segregation Units Use of Segregation Units has Increased: The

percentage of inmates placed in administrative and disciplinary segregation has risen 40 percent nationally between 1995 and 2000; by comparison, the prison population increased by 28 percent during this same period .

However, Use of Segregation varies by Location: a recent study of special population units noted that several states reported using segregation for less than 1 percent of the male and female inmate population (Maryland, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Vermont), while a few states placed a much larger percentage of inmates in segregation (West Virginia (16%), New Mexico (13%), and Colorado (8%)).

National Commission Recommendations on Use of Segregation

1. Make segregation a last resort and a more productive form of confinement, and stop releasing people directly from segregation to the streets.

2. End conditions of isolation.3. Protect mentally ill prisoners

Recent Trends in Special Populations: Mental Health Units

There is Variation in the percentage of inmates assigned to mental health units:

Several states housed less than 1 percent of their male and female inmate populations in mental health units( Florida, Indiana, Missouri, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont),

However, two states ( Georgia,12 %, and Alaska,5%) take a very different approach to the housing of mentally ill inmates.

State-Level Variations in External Classification Decisions In some prison systems (e.g. Rhode

Island), only a small proportion (less than 5%) of all inmates are housed in one of these special population units;

In other State Prison systems (e.g. Massachusetts), a much larger proportion (close to 40%) of all inmates are placed in these locations.

Why do State Prison Systems Vary in the Use of Special Population Housing?

Philosophy: It should be emphasized that the size of a particular state’s special population system is driven not by inmate characteristics and classification criteria alone; it represents a policy choice by corrections managers in each system.

Cost: Since it costs much more to house offenders in special population groupings than in general population groupings, it is not surprising that some corrections systems limit the size of the special population system by narrowly defining the criteria used to make this initial classification decision.

Maximum Security Inmates

It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that an inmate placed in a maximum security facility in one state (or federal) system, may be placed in a different security level facility somewhere else.

In fact, many general population prisoners classified as maximum custody do not present management problems and are so classified because of the crime they committed, their prison sentence, or a violent event that occurred many years in the past”.

Factors (e.g. punishment) other than risk control (or risk reduction) are driving the initial assignment process in many state and federal prisons today.

Internal Classification Systems: Assessment Areas

In order to make prisons safer, a variety of assessment instruments are used to classify inmates in each of the following areas:

(1) Threat/dangerousness, (2) Mental health/ potential for

victimization and self-injury, (3) Physical health, (4) Treatment/programming needs, and (5) Escape/ flight risk.

AREA 1: Dangerousness and Threat Assessment

There are a number of different risk assessment instruments currently in use across the country.

Some instruments focus on specific forms of violence (e.g. the Rapid Risk Assessment for Sexual Offense Recidivism (RRASOR), the Sexual Violence Risk-20(SVR-20), and the Static-99, target sex offending),

Other instruments assess an individual’s general propensity for violent/assaultive behavior(eg. the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R)).

Problems Related to Dangerousness Assessment

The main problem associated with using the latest generation of risk assessment tools in prison settings is that these instruments were developed and validated using subsequent offender behavior in the community as the outcome measure of interest;

They have not been developed and tested using institutional violence as the criterion/outcome measure.

Problems Related to Dangerousness Assessment

Because the base rate of various forms of institutional violence is very low, it is likely that current risk instruments—when validated—will have difficulty distinguishing dangerous from non-dangerous inmates.

This creates two potential problems for corrections managers:

false positives, i.e. individuals predicted to be violent who actually do not become violent while in prison; and

false negatives, i.e. individuals predicted to be non-dangerous who do in fact commit a violent act while in prison.

How to Reduce Prison Violence: Recommendations of National Commission

1. Reduce crowding. States and localities must commit to eliminating the crowded

conditions that exist in many of the country’s prisons and jails and work with corrections administrators to set and meet reasonable limits on the number of prisoners that facilities can safely house. 2. Promote productivity and rehabilitation. Invest in programs that are

proven to reduce violence and to change behavior over the long term. 3. Use objective classification and direct supervision. Incorporate violence prevention in every facility’s fundamental classification and supervision procedures. 4. Use force, non-lethal weaponry, and restraints only as a last resort.

Dramatically reduce the use of non-lethal weapons, restraints, and physical force by using non-forceful responses whenever possible, restricting the use of weaponry to qualified staff, and eliminating the use of restraints except when necessary to prevent serious injury to self or others. 5. Employ surveillance technology. Make good use of recording surveillance cameras to monitor the correctional environment. 6. Support community and family bonds. Reexamine where prisons are

located and where prisoners are assigned, encourage visitation, and implement phone call reform.

Threat Assessment in Prison

Gang Members: While almost 90% of all prisons screen for gang/security threat group membership, there is significant variation in the percentage of the inmate population (male and female) actually identified as gang/STG members.

Extent of Gang Membership Varies: In some states, such as Wisconsin (43%), New Mexico (36%), and Minnesota (30%), a large proportion of the incoming inmate population is identified; but in several other prison systems the initial screening results in the identification of a much smaller proportion of the inmate population.

In California and Michigan, for example, only 1% of the inmate population was classified as gang/STG members

Gang Membership: How is it Defined?

Gang/ STG membership can be determined from a range of sources, including inmate interviews, official police and court records, and evidence of inmate tattoos identifying gang affiliation.

In Florida’s department of corrections, an inmate would be classified as a gang member if he/she met any two of the following criteria:

Admits to criminal street gang membership; Is identified as a gang member by a parent/guardian; Is identified as a gang member by a documented reliable informant; Reside/frequents a gang's area, adopts their style of dress, hand signs, or

tattoos, and associates with known gang members; Is identified as a gang member by an informant of previously untested

reliability and such identification is corroborated by independent information;

Was arrested more than once in the company of identified gang member for offenses which are consistent with usual criminal street gang activity;

Is identified as a criminal street gang member by physical evidence such as photographs or other documentation;

Was stopped in the company of known criminal street gang members four or more times.

Problems with Gang/ Security Threat Assessment A number of recent reviews have indicated that

the influence of gangs on both community and institutional violence and disorder has been exaggerated (Byrne and Hummer, in press; Byrne, 2006).

In addition, there is no current empirical evidence identifying a link between security threat group membership and prison violence .

Despite this research shortfall, gang/STG status will likely result in placement in administrative segregation and/or location in a high security facility (maximum security or super –max prison).

In some prison systems, it may even affect offender location during the initial prison classification process or upon transfer to a new institution.

Johnson v California Decision

In California, corrections authorities were until recently assigning inmates to racially segregated cells in order to “ prevent members of race-based gangs from turning on one another in two-man cells”.

In Johnson v. California, the Supreme Court declared this practice unconstitutional .

According to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor(2005), “ When government officers are permitted to use race as a proxy for gang membership and violence without demonstrating a compelling government interest and proving that their means are narrowly tailored, society as a whole suffers”

Religion and Security Threat Group Membership:

Suspect Communities Religious Conversion and Terrorism: One area of

potential controversy is an upcoming initiative to improve our data collection (and information sharing) on both religious preferences and religious conversion in prison; this approach is based on the belief that prisoner radicalization may result in increased levels of domestic terrorism in this country over the next few years.

Tracking Religion: Since it is estimated that over 70 percent of religious conversions in prison involve conversion to Islam, it appears that it is the identification and tracking of this group of converted inmates that will be the primary focus of this strategy, although radicalized right-wing Christian extremist groups are also identified( e.g. Aryan Nation)

AREA 2: Mental Health Assessment in Prison and

Jail Nature of the Problem: A number of recent

reviews of federal, state, and local prisons and jails in the United States have identified the classification, treatment, and control of the mentally ill offender as one of the most serious management problems facing prison officials today.

Extent of the Problem: While estimates of the size of the mentally ill prison and jail populations vary by the type of assessment completed and the definition of mental illness used, there is general agreement that—at minimum-- about one in five offenders entering our prison system today have a serious mental disorder

Types and Rates of Mental Illness among Prisoners

Rate of schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders is three to five times greater among prisoners as compared to the U.S. population., while the rate of bipolar disorder is 1.5 to 3 times greater (NCCHC,2002).

Conservatively, it is estimated that “ there are at least 350,000 mentally ill people in prison and jail on any given day”,

There are three times as many severely mentally ill individuals in prison than in psychiatric hospitals.

Impact of Mental Illness on Prison Management

I agree with the conclusion of the National Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons:

(1) it certainly appears that we have replaced yesterday’s asylums with today’s prisons; and

(2) “the result is not only needless suffering by the individuals who are under treated but safety problems those prisoners cause staff and other prisoners”.

Mental Illness: The Gender Gap

Women prisoners are far more likely than men to identify as having a mental illness (24% vs 16%) and,

Among those who do identify as mentally ill, women are far more likely than men to report a history of sexual (59% vs. 15%)and physical abuse (68% vs. 27%).

The American Psychiatric Association recommends developing treatment programs especially for women prisoners that can address their history of trauma

Area 3:Health Status of Prisoners: Disease

Prevalence Compared to U.S. Population

Infectious disease: Hepatitus C(4x greater), AIDS infection (8-9 x higher), Active TB (4x greater) AIDS (5x greater)

Chronic Disease: asthma (higher) Mental Illness: Schizophrenia(3-5x

higher), Bipolar(1.5-3 x higher), major depression(same)

Substance Abuse: 25% fit Alcohol dependent profile; 83% with drug use history

Returning Home with a Disease

People carrying an infectious disease who were released from prison and jail in 1996:

Hepatitis C :1.3-1.4 million HIV : 98,000-145,000 AIDS: 39,000 Tuberculosis: 566,000 latent and

12,000 active cases

Area 4:Treatment Assessment

Education Skill Level and Work History Individual Problem Areas: substance

abuse, mental health problems, sex offender treatment.

In each treatment area, objective, standardized assessment instruments are available

The problem? Treatment availability, access, and quality in prison settings

Area 5:Escape/ Flight Risk Assessment

Assessing flight risk is difficult because the base rate is so low.

The prison escape rate declined significantly between 1988 and 1998, from 1.4 escapes per 100 inmates in 88 to .04 in 1998.

The vast majority of all escapes are from minimum security institutions. They are usually walk-a ways, who are quickly captured or return.

The problem of assessing flight risk is compounded by an unclear definition of attempted/completed escapes.

Internal Classification Systems

Comprehensive, automated, on-line management information systems represent the future of prison classification and offender management.

The Adult Internal Management System (AIMS) often referred to as the Quay system and designed and tested in several prison systems by Dr. Herbert Quay, is the most common internal classification system used today.

AIMS is currently being used by several facilities in the Federal Bureau of Prisons and in all or part of several state prison systems ( Ohio, South Dakota, Missouri, and South Carolina).

Effectiveness of Classification Systems: Two Randomized Experiments

Camp and Gaes (2005) randomly assigned medium security inmates to minimum security facilities,

Bench and Allen (2003) randomly assigned maximum security inmates (based on the external risk classification) to medium security facilities;

Findings: both studies found no significant differences in either overall misconduct or serious misconduct violations across experimental and control groups.

Classification Systems Need To Redefined

RESEARCH POLICY

(1) Contrary to expectations, placement of high risk offenders in less restrictive prison settings( medium security) does not lower their rate of institutional misconduct; and placement of medium risk offenders in lower risk settings does not raise their rate of misconduct;

(2) Berk et al(2006) developed a model for predicting dangerous misconduct in prison( assault, drug trafficking, and robbery) but the model had accuracy problems( 50%) due to a very low base rate of misconduct( 3%), which led to a false positives ratio of 10:1.

The implications of these findings for external classification systems are straight-forward: New risk reduction strategies are needed

Alternatives to control-based placements should be field-tested to determine their effect on inmate misconduct.

Age(younger), gender(male), history of violence(known),history of mental illness(known) program participation(low), and recent disciplinary action are all correlated with inmate misconduct.

We need to link each risk factor with the appropriate programmatic response.

An Overview of REENTRY TECHNOLOGY

HARD REENTRY TECHNOLOGY

SOFT REENTRY TECHNOLOGY

GPS/Rf Electronic monitoring GPS for staff location Polygraphs and

plethysmographs to support sex offender treatment

Laptops for line staff Reporting Kiosks for low risk

offenders Remote Alcohol monitoring

devices Breathalizers Instant drug tests Language translation devices

Improved risk assessment instruments for sex, drug, and mentally ill offender assessment

COMPSTAT for reentry and mapping software applications( offender/resource location)

SMART case management technology

New technology for monitoring identity manipulation by registered sex offenders

Field Search software to monitor internet activities of sex offenders

New persuasive technology applications

Monitoring activities via social network sites

The New Technology of Offender Reentry

The Identification of High Risk Offenders The Identification of High Risk Locations The Identification of High Risk Times

Offender Reentry and Information Technology

An example of a sophisticated integrated offender case management system is the University of Maryland High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Automated Tracking System (HATS).

HATS is an automated information system that is used in by the Maryland Division of Probation and Parole, drug courts, community-based treatment programs, and other agencies serving offenders in Maryland.

This system integrates data from many sources relating to offender treatment and supervision.

Information is available for offenders regarding intake, referrals and appointments, program inventory, offender confidentiality and releases, supervision, graduated sanctions and treatment tracking.

COMPSTAT and Reentry

Four basic principles of COMPSTAT-driven reentry initiatives

1. Intelligence: assessing individual and community risk 2. Rapid Deployment: target high risk offenders, smaller caseloads,

resources available immediately upon release( employment, housing, counseling, treatment), location of officers in community, not office.

3. Effective tactics: evidence-based practice matching programs to offender problems/needs

4. Follow-up and assessment: performance measurement and identification of high performance and low performance programs/strategies

Internet-based Monitoring and Reentry

The internet provides opportunities for social networking by offenders reentering the community after a period of incarceration

The internet also provides an opportunity for reentry personnel to monitor offender behavior on these social networking sites; it is another facet of supervision in cyber space.

Strategies for Online Monitoring

According to a review by Blalock( 2010), community corrections workers are developing strategies that involve direct monitoring of offender social network activity via undercover surveillance and the creation of false identities to gain access to online groups

street names, gang names, and monikers can be learned from photos, screen names, and personalized URLs; • leads can be developed from wall/comment conversations and photos; • friends and associates can be learned from friend lists; • individual movements can be learned from mini-feeds Whereabouts can be located by IP address, city/state location, etc. Field Search Software looks for pornography on the computers of sex

offenders New software developed by IDAnalytics and Utica College’s CIMIP can

notify authorities of identity manipulation by registered sex offenders via cell phone and credit card purchase monitoring

Challenges and Controversies

Challenge: Silk Road and the creation of anonymous online identities via TOR software allows access to the dark side of the internet

Controversy: Big brother privacy concerns and the fact that online monitoring takes time away from other activities that may foster desistance( mentoring via direct contact).

Future: the likely development of site tracking software perhaps using reviews of key words and pictures to monitor sites and then notify reentry personnel with potential problem behavior

New Directions: The Emergence of Persuasive Technology

Computing technologies may persuade in three ways: 1. They may serve as a persuasive tool that leads

people through a process, makes target behavior easier to do or perform calculations or measurements that motivate.

2.They may persuade as a social actor that rewards people with positive feedback, models a target behavior or attitude or provides social support.

3. They may act as a medium, allowing people to explore cause-and-effect relationships, provide people with experiences that motivate or help people rehearse a behavior.

Examples of Persuasive Technology in use today

1. The Methamphetamine Remote Recovery Project: Used in conjunction with a cognitive-based treatment philosophy, computing technologies provide more opportunity for communication between the probation officer and the offender for routine supervisory check-ins as well as determine in individual treatment needs.

Together, the probation officer, treatment provider and offender can locate additional substance abuse support based on offender needs through the Substance Abuse Treatment Locator (SATL).

https://findtreatment.samhsa.gov/TreatmentLocator/faces/quickSearch.jspx

The SATL is a web-based search engine that will allow probationers to locate and make initial contact with substance abuse treatment providers in their area

Examples of Persuasive Technology in use today

Example 2. E-Treat: E-Treat is a computer-assisted intervention for individuals seeking treatment for substance abuse disorders. Although not designed specifically for probationers, the programme does accept referrals from probation and parole officers.

TheE-Treat programme combines elements of motivational interviewing with persuasive technologies to support the motivation to continue treatment for those who are either waiting for long-term treatment or are in transition between treatment services.

E-Treat employs recovery coaches – trained in motivational interviewing – to conduct initial assessments, assist clients in using available computer resources and initiate access to electronic resources available through the E-Treat intervention .

Recovery coaches provide personalised coaching and support – they also send motivational messages to clients using telephone, text messages, email and web-based communication. Individualised messages offer suggestions about sustaining recovery efforts, such as exploring ambivalence about entering treatment, averting destructive communication patterns and eliciting self-motivational statements.

http://www.substanceabusepolicy.com/content/5/1/10

Examples of Persuasive Technology in use today

Example 3. Ann-e:This iPhone application allows persons involved in Twelve Step programmes to find meetings being held close to where the offender is located at the time of a mobile query. http://alcoholism.about.com/od/meetings/a/ann-e_app.htm

Offenders can also request real-time support from persons on call for support or even offer support to others in need.

Probation officers can send mobile reminders and support to probationers during risky times and places associated with relapse and use positive messages in real time for offenders as they make positive choices.

This application may offer a less intrusive persuasive option which would be more appropriate for low-risk offenders or those transitioning out of higher risk levels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1J-LKXDTTA

A Look at Field Search Technology:

Field Search--Originally designed to assist probation and parole officers in sex offender management, the Field Search suite is equally effective in first responder situations or in examining computers for evidence of other crimes.

https://www.justnet.org/fieldsearch/fs_features.html Research: A January 2008 survey of 269 Field Search users

found that more than one-half of the respondents use Field Search primarily for probation/ parole operations, and more than one-quarter use it primarily for law enforcement operations.

More than 70 percent of respondents successfully used evidence captured by Field Search in a court proceeding, and 17 percent reported that the evidence was used to successfully prosecute new criminal charges.

The respondents expressed their satisfaction with Field Search, primarily as a tool that can generate information used by treatment providers and provide a means of determining compliance with conditions of supervision.