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Objective: The therapeutic working alliance is an important factor in producing treatment change and positive therapeutic outcomes for people with mental illness, yet little is known about the working alliance's role in treatment change in people with mental illness that is justice involved. In addition to treating the mental illness symptoms of justice-involved people with mental illness, addressing factors known to predict criminal behavior (including criminal thinking) could optimize posttreatment outcomes and reduce future justice involvement. This study examines the role of the working alliance in treatment change in a clinical treatment sample of 265 adult male and female justice-involved people with mental illness and substance use disorders completing probation sentences in a residential treatment facility. Method: Repeated measures moderation analyses were used to test participants' reported working alliance as a moderator of change from pre- to posttreatment scores of self-reported mental illness symptoms and criminal thinking. Results: The working alliance significantly moderated reductions in depression, anxiety, anger, and manic symptoms (R2 ranging from.03 to.09), and general, reactive, and current criminal thinking (R2 ranging from.04 to.11). Conclusions: These findings expand the literature on the relation between working alliance and changes in mental illness symptoms by testing this association in the understudied population of justice-involved people with mental illness; these results also suggest the working alliance is associated with changes in criminal thinking. Treatment providers working with justice-involved people with mental illness should assess and emphasize the development of a working alliance to maximize treatment change. What is the public health significance of this article?: These findings expand our understanding of the role of the working alliance in treatment change among a criminal justice-involved clinical sample with mental illness and substance use disorders. Clinicians should continue to focus on not only treatment needs but also treatment processes for people with mental illness, regardless of setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has begun to elucidate that persons with mental illness become involved in the criminal justice system as a result of criminality and not merely because of their mental illness. This study aims to clarify the similarities and differences in criminal thinking and psychiatric symptomatology between persons with mental illness who are and are not criminal justice involved. Male and female (n = 94) participants admitted to an acute psychiatric facility completed measures to assess criminal thinking (i.e., Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles and Criminal Sentiments Scale-Modified) and psychiatric symptomatology (Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-Third Edition). In addition to the inpatient sample, 94 incarcerated persons with mental illness from a previously conducted study were selected based on their match with the current sample on several key demographic and psychiatric variables. The results of this study indicated that hospitalized persons with mental illness with a history of criminal justice involvement evidenced similar thinking styles to persons with mental illness who were incarcerated. Persons with mental illness without criminal justice involvement evidenced fewer thinking styles supportive of a criminal lifestyle than the incarcerated sample. Furthermore, the persons with mental illness sample with no history of criminal justice involvement showed significantly lower levels of psychopathology shown to be risk factors for criminal justice involvement (e.g., antisocial personality, drug dependence, alcohol dependence). These findings have implications for offender-type classification, development of targeted treatment interventions, and program placement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research synthesis was to examine treatment effects across studies of the service providers to offenders with mental illness. Meta-analytic techniques were applied to 26 empirical studies obtained from a review of 12,154 research documents. Outcomes of interest in this review included measures of both psychiatric and criminal functioning. Although meta-analytic results are based on a small sample of available studies, results suggest interventions with offenders with mental illness effectively reduced symptoms of distress, improving offender's ability to cope with their problems, and resulted in improved behavioral markers including institutional adjustment and behavioral functioning. Furthermore, interventions specifically designed to meet the psychiatric and criminal justice needs of offenders with mental illness have shown to produce significant reductions in psychiatric and criminal recidivism. Finally, this review highlighted admission policies and treatment strategies (e.g., use of homework), which produced the most positive benefits. Results of this research synthesis are directly relevant for service providers in both criminal justice and mental health systems (e.g., psychiatric hospitals) as well as community settings by informing treatment strategies for the first time, which are based on empirical evidence. In addition, the implications of these results to policy makers tasked with the responsibility of designating services for this special needs population are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In corrections, where staffing limitations tax an overburdened mental health system, telemental health is an increasingly common mode of mental health service delivery. Although telemental health presents an efficient treatment modality for a spectrum of mental health services, it is imperative to study how this modality influences key elements of the treatment experience. In this study, the authors compared inmates' perceptions of the working alliance, postsession mood, and satisfaction with psychiatric and psychological mental health services delivered through 2 different modalities: telemental health and face-to-face. Participants consisted of 186 inmates who received mental health services (36 via telepsychology, 50 via face-to-face psychology, 50 via telepsychiatry, and 50 via face-to-face psychiatry). Results indicate no significant differences in inmates' perceptions of the work alliance with the mental health professional, postsession mood, or overall satisfaction with services when telemental health and face-to-face modalities were compared within each type of mental health service. Implications of these findings are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasing rise in the U.S. prison population, meeting the mental health needs of inmates before, during, and after incarceration remains an obstacle. What are the mental health experiences of inmates? For what types of problems are inmates willing to seek help, and what are the barriers to their service utilization? This study investigated inmates' attitudes and perceptions toward mental health services and examined whether these attitudes and perceptions vary with respect to ethnic group membership or among inmates of differing security levels. Implications of these findings for psychologists, including psychologists not employed in correctional settings, are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights the adjustments that must be made when making the transition from trainee to professional. Suggestions for making the adjustment from trainee to professional; Challenges encountered by a faculty member; Tips on handling the challenges faced by the faculty member; Suggestions for academicians pursuing applied interests.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of group psychotherapy with incarcerated offenders. Meta-analytic techniques were applied to 26 empirical studies that used a treatment group versus a control group. The outcome measures assessed in this study included institutional adjustment, anger, anxiety, depression, interpersonal relations, locus of control, and self-esteem. The results indicate that positive treatment effects were found for the use of group psychotherapy with incarcerated offenders across all outcomes. Supplemental analyses were also included to identify factors that contribute to the efficacy of group psychotherapy and indicate that the use of homework exercises resulted in significantly improved outcomes. Furthermore, participants mandated to treatment did not negatively influence the efficacy of group psychotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Provides information on a study which examined the national practices of group psychotherapy services for male inmates in the state correctional facilities in the United States. Types of psychotherapy groups offered; Findings of the study; Implications and applications of the therapy.

What will public sector psychology look like in the year 2020? Will public sector psychologists be prepared to meet the evolving challenges and service needs encountered during the next 20 years? The purpose of this manuscript is to identify common characteristics of public sector psychology across work settings and describe the changing face of public sector psychology. Emphasis is placed on the driving forces fueling changes to the field (i.e., changing health care delivery paradigms, growth in technology and information systems, new levels of professional accountability, changing economic infrastructures, and shifts in clinical populations and points of interventions). In addition, a vision for the future of public sector psychology is offered [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Few empirical studies have examined how doctoral psychology training programs introduce corrections as an area of study or a venue for practice, making it difficult to understand the link between academic programs and a psychology services workforce in corrections. A representative group of directors of American Psychological Association accredited doctoral programs in clinical and counseling psychology (N = 170) were surveyed for information on corrections coursework, faculty interest, and practicum opportunities. More than half the programs offered exposure to clinical practice in corrections; largely practicum and rarely specific coursework. Faculty considerations were the most frequently nominated factors that limited correctional training in doctoral programs. The discussion focuses on implications for policy and practice in the training of the corrections workforce and in developing corrections-competent faculty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What obstacles are faced by academic psychologists seeking professional licensure? Data presented here from all U.S. jurisdictions suggests that licensure requirements vary greatly across states and in some areas may be quite difficult to fulfill within the context of an academic position. Results of a survey of training directors of clinical and counseling doctoral programs accredited by the American Psychological Association indicated that, although licensure is expected of most faculty, a number of challenges may impede this goal. Programmatic efforts to facilitate licensure of new faculty, as well as implications of our findings, possible remedies, and recommendations to new faculty, are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Across two experiments, we examined three cognitive biases (order effects, context effects, confirmatory bias) in licensed psychologists' diagnostic reasoning., Hypotheses: Our main prediction was that psychologist-participants would seek confirming versus disconfirming information after forming an initial diagnostic hypothesis, even given multiple opportunities to seek new information in the same case. We also expected that individual differences would affect diagnostic reasoning, such that psychologists with lower (vs. higher) cognitive reflection tendencies and larger (vs. smaller) bias blind spots would be more likely to demonstrate confirmatory bias., Method: In Study 1, we recruited 149 licensed psychologists ( M = 18 years of experience; 44% women; 71% White) and exposed them to one of four randomly assigned vignettes that varied order effects (one set of symptoms in reversed orders) and context effects (court referral vs. employer referral). They rank ordered a list of four possible initial diagnostic hypotheses and received a piped follow-up choice of which of two pieces of information (confirmatory or disconfirmatory) they wanted to test their initial hypothesis. Study 2 ( n = 131; M = 21 years of experience; 53% men; 68% White) replicated and extended Study 1, following the same procedure except offering three sequential choice opportunities., Results: Both studies found robust confirmatory information seeking: 92% sought confirmatory information in Study 1, and confirmation persisted across three opportunities in Study 2 (90%, 84%, 77%), although it lowered with each opportunity (generalized logistic mixed regression model), F (2, 378) = 3.85, p = .02, η p ² = .02., Conclusion: These findings expand a growing body of research on bias in expert judgment. Specifically, psychologists may engage in robust confirmation bias in the process of forming diagnoses. Although further research is needed on bias and its impact on accuracy, psychologists may need to take steps to reduce confirmatory reasoning processes, such as documenting evidence for and against each decision element. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Research suggests distinct criminal risk factors, not mental illness, are more strongly associated with most criminal behaviors. This notion has been supported among inpatient persons with mental illness (PMI) when examining antisocial cognitions; however, other key criminogenic risk factors (the Big Four and Central Eight risk factors) have not been examined among psychiatric inpatient PMI., Hypotheses: We hypothesized that criminal justice (CJ)-involved PMI would endorse significantly greater criminogenic risk compared to non-CJ-involved PMI and that these risk factors would significantly and accurately identify whether PMI had CJ involvement. Additionally, we hypothesized that PMI with and without a history of CJ involvement would not significantly differ on their reported psychiatric symptomatology., Method: We examined all Central Eight criminal risk factors and psychiatric symptomatology among psychiatric inpatient PMI ( N = 142) with ( n = 74) and without ( n = 68) CJ involvement histories., Results: Multivariate analysis of variance and discriminant function analysis indicated significant differences between the Big Four and Central Eight criminal risk factors when classifying CJ and non-CJ groups. The Big Four risk factors correctly classified 85.9% of participants, and the Central Eight correctly classified 99.3% of participants into CJ and non-CJ groups; however, psychiatric symptoms only correctly classified 57.7% of participants into CJ and non-CJ groups., Conclusions: Criminal risk factors appear to be more strongly associated with CJ involvement among PMI than psychiatric symptomatology; therefore, psychotherapeutic intervention on criminal risk factors, not only mental illness, may decrease criminal recidivism among CJ-involved PMI. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The purpose of this study was to examine the national practices of psychotherapy services for male offenders with mental illness (OMI) in state correctional facilities. Participants consisted of 230 correctional mental health service providers from 165 state correctional facilities. Results indicated that mental health professionals provided a variety of services to OMI that can be conceptualized by six goals considered important in their work: mental illness recovery, emotions management, institutional functioning, re-entry, risk-need, and personal growth. Mental health professionals in this study generally viewed mental illness recovery, institutional functioning, and personal growth as significantly more important and spent more time focused on these goals than emotions management, re-entry, and risk-need. Mental health professionals tended to believe the services they provided were effective across four key treatment foci including mental illness, skill development, behavioral functioning, and criminogenic needs with more progress perceived in areas related to mental illness and skill development than their ability to effectively change behavioral functioning. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.

This study examined inmate attitudes toward treatment, mental health treatment utilization, and treatment effects that maximize treatment effectiveness. Participants consisted of 278 incarcerated male adult offenders from the Kansas Department of Corrections. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that inmate attitudes toward treatment were predictive of the number of mental health treatment sessions (dosage) inmates received. Hierarchical linear regression analyses indicated positive help-seeking attitudes were associated with institutional behavior (decreased number and severity of disciplinary infractions) and scores on a measure assessing risk for future criminal behavior; however, the amount of mental health treatment an inmate received (treatment dosage) was associated with problematic institutional behavior (i.e., increased severity and number of disciplinary infractions). These results indicated that treatment dosage and behavioral outcomes were impacted by inmate attitudes toward treatment. As a result, correctional psychologists may be better able to predict which inmates will receive the most benefit from services. Implications of these findings for practitioners and policy makers are discussed.

To examine the prevalence of criminal thinking in mentally disordered offenders, incarcerated male (n = 265) and female (n = 149) offenders completed measures of psychiatric functioning and criminal thinking. Results indicated 92% of the participants were diagnosed with a serious mental illness, and mentally disordered offenders produced criminal thinking scores on the Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking Styles (PICTS) and Criminal Sentiments Scale-Modified (CSS-M) similar to that of non-mentally ill offenders. Collectively, results indicated the clinical presentation of mentally disordered offenders is similar to that of psychiatric patients and criminals. Implications are discussed with specific focus on the need for mental health professionals to treat co-occurring issues of mental illness and criminality in correctional mental health treatment programs.