Beware the razorwire: Psychology behind bars

Nearly 2 million people are incarcerated in federal, state and local correctional facilities in this country. Individuals with serious mental disorders increasingly fill these ranks. The roles psychologists and other mental health professionals adopt while working with this population can become an issue of silent consternation. As a point of departure, some (e.g., Levinson, 1985) have suggested that psychologists rightly function as institutional mediators of conflict, a virtual Marcus Welby of the collective correctional “psyche”. In practice, it is not uncommon for some clinicians to retreat from this approach and do little, or conversely, march in one hundred directions at once. The authors suggest that as psychology service delivery has matured in the past few decades this latter, well-intentioned but unrealistic position should be reconsidered. We suggest that greater depth and definition in the area of forensic psychology, coupled with recently developed ethical and professional standards of care, may serve to guide the clinician when providing services “behind bars”. Authors' Note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and may not reflect the opinions of the United States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, other state or local criminal justice agencies, or the University of Texas at Austin.