Abstract
Staff working within correctional services have a duty of care to provide safe and humane treatment for people who are incarcerated. Correctional staff are tasked with ensuring that self-harm is minimized for people who are incarcerated. The extent of self-harm behaviour in offenders managed by Corrective Services New South Wales (CSNSW) is explored in terms of staff response to behaviours. Self-harm is conceptualized along a continuum that can be described in four categories ranging from potentially lethal to preventative. Although staff do not overtly use this conceptual model, it is useful to describe self-harm behaviour in relation to CSNSW practice. The relationship between self-harm and violent and breach of order offences is explored. Finally, although not formally used by staff, risk of reoffending as measured by the Level of Service Inventory-Revised (LSI-R) is found to be significantly related to staff understanding of self-harm risk. Implications of these findings are discussed.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 255-272 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | Psychiatry, Psychology and Law |
Volume | 20 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Apr 2013 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- CSNSW
- LSI-R
- offenders
- risk
- self-harm
- staff understanding