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Detention is a highly traumatizing experience for both the incarcerated person and the family due to the break of the romantic and affective relationships. Detention itself influences either mothers' or fathers' experiences as caregivers and represents a risk for the psychological, physical and social well-being of the children. Thus, the parent-child relationship following the incarceration represents a relevant theme that raises clinical, social, and ethical issues. Electronic databases were systematically searched for studies published in the last twenty years on this topic. In this systematic review of the literature, the results of 27 articles on the issue of parent-child relationship in a prison context published between 1998 and 2018 were analyzed. The topics considered by literature could be summarized in three thematic issues: (i) children and types of risk following the incarceration of one or both parents; (ii) parents and how the prison experience affects the perception of one's parental role; (iii) the characteristics of parent-child relationship and how the detention experience can harm the quality of the parent-child relationship. There is a lack of literature on these topics, for this reason this paper could represent a starting point for new investigations and future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from the assumption that the setting is absolutely influenced and structured by the representations that the institution has of clinical work and from those that the clinician has of the institution where he operates, with this paper we intend to reflect on the defensive dynamics, splitting above all, that cross and characterize a detention centre. Such in a place will be essential to maintain an abstinent and neutral position and a psychoanalytically oriented thought that does not colluded with these dynamics. Difficulties are many, from the structuring of the setting, where everything is created from scratch, including the request: Customer and user do not coincide; part of the Clinician work consist in understanding if and how, the User Can become a Patient. When this happens, a valuable space for self-understanding is created and they can try to understand how they have come to commit crimes which sometimes are of great seriousness. The "restructuring" of the personality becomes a fundamental element of the treatment, where the entry in prison produces or induces a process of de-structuring. A brief Clinical History will be expose, to illustrate the role of trauma and victimization and the necessary work on the "first victim" in order to avoid further victimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Holloway skills therapy programme (HoST) at Her Majesty's Prison and Young Offenders' Institution Holloway is provided to women who, because of problematic behaviour associated with borderline personality disorder, are often excluded from treatment in prison and in the community. HoST addresses issues of offending behaviour, self-harm, suicidality and indiscipline, through a modified evidence-based treatment modality, dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), which is a form of cognitive behav-iour psychotherapy. This paper will outline the possibility of a modified DBT approach to working with female offenders in the prison setting. A pilot evaluation of female prisoners who received the treatment is also presented through a range of quantitative measures. In turn, positive outcomes with regard to reduction in time spent on the assessment and care in custody teamwork process, reduction in adjudications and improved overall mental health are presented. These findings are discussed along with the implications for clinical practice in the prison setting. The need for future structured research is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines risk of suicidal and self-harm behaviours among new inmates at Ferrara Prison. Having reviewed studies carried out in different countries regarding the distinguished characteristics of suicide and self-harm prone personalities, we encountered 179 subjects conforming to the profiles. However, further and closer examination revealed that only one such inmate actually ever attempted suicide and one other engaged in self-harming behaviour. It therefore emerges that the number of individuals prone to risk behaviour does not necessarily match the number of those who eventually succumb to their tendencies. In the light of such findings, we expose the complexity of the Psychologist's intervention in such field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]