RECOMMENDATION 3
Reduce recidivism by addressing behavioral health needs of people serving long sentences
A large body of research shows that incarcerated people have significantly higher rates of violent victimization than members of the general public.1 Studies have also shown that experiences of trauma—including violent victimization—increase risk for a range of symptoms, including impulsivity, misperception of threat or danger, depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Left untreated, these symptoms can lead to severe mental health and substance use disorders, which can lock people into cycles of victimization and suffering.2
Although most people who experience trauma do not engage in criminal offending, research indicates that those who do perpetrate serious or violent crime often also report having experienced severe abuse and victimization in childhood and adolescence.3 For the nation’s most victimized populations, the exposure to violence and trauma never fully recedes into the past, and instead shapes their daily lives. This leads to a condition of continuous traumatic stress, a state of chronic anxiety in which people experience the repercussions of past trauma as they simultaneously must remain on guard for present and future threats to their safety.4 Social science research underscores that these kinds of experiences are often associated with violent offending.5
Studies suggest that trauma-informed and trauma-responsive behavioral health programs can produce multiple beneficial outcomes.6 These include reducing conditions and behaviors associated with offending—including anxiety, depression, anger, and other symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder—and increasing behaviors that are associated with desistance, such as effective coping skills.7 Research shows that these programs can be particularly effective when they acknowledge and integrate the specific cultural experiences of participants, a practice referred to as “cultural humility.”8 These programs are difficult to implement within prison settings. But studies indicate that they represent a wise investment, as education and cross-training between correctional security and clinical staff on the impact of violence and trauma can promote safer conditions for prison staff and incarcerated people.9
"Addressing the impact of trauma not only benefits individuals serving long sentences, but also has the potential to decrease in-prison behavioral infractions, improve facility safety, and reduce recidivism."
Based on these findings, the Task Force recommends that legislators, policymakers, and corrections leaders support the development, implementation, and evaluation of trauma-responsive rehabilitative behavioral health services in prison for people serving long sentences. Addressing the impact of trauma not only benefits individuals serving long sentences, but also has the potential to decrease in-prison behavioral infractions, improve facility safety, and reduce recidivism. Helping people acknowledge and address experiences of trauma and any resulting behavioral health symptoms and problematic behaviors can increase public safety and improve outcomes for individuals, families, and communities.
Recommendation
Sentencing courts, state corrections agencies, and the federal Bureau of Prisons should collect information about the history of people’s victimization and trauma to inform sentencing, prison classification and program assignment, services, and supervision to minimize the potential impacts that chronic, severe trauma can have on people that can lead them to harm others and themselves.
Implementation Steps
1
Sentencing courts, state corrections agencies, and the federal Bureau of Prisons should ensure that tools used to assess defendants’ and incarcerated people’s risks and needs, including pre-sentencing investigation reports, pre-plea investigation reports, prison intake and classification processes, and parole release reports, collect information about previous histories of trauma, victimization, and witnessing violence so they can inform sentencing, program assignment, and supervision.
2
Sentencing courts, state corrections agencies, and the federal Bureau of Prisons should ensure that efforts to incorporate mental health and victim history information into sentencing, programming, services, and supervision decisions protect the confidentiality and privacy of defendants, people serving long sentences, and victims and survivors.
3
Sentencing courts, state corrections agencies, and the federal Bureau of Prisons should implement education, training, and cross-training among security, clinical staff, and trauma-trained behavioral health professionals about the impact of victimization and trauma as part of the regular training of criminal justice leadership and staff whose work impacts people serving long sentences.
4
State legislatures and Congress should appropriate necessary resources to support the education and cross-training of criminal justice professionals and behavioral health clinicians.
5
State and federal authorities should support data collection and evaluation of sentencing courts’ and corrections systems’ behavioral health programming, including:
- Analysis of the effectiveness of sentencing, program assignment, supervision, and mental health services aimed at reducing symptoms associated with trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder, and positive outcomes, such as engagement in programming and reductions in institutional rule violations
- Race, gender, age, and other demographic factors of participants
