Trauma-Based Intervention for Adults Releasing from Jail

Trauma-Based Intervention for Adults Releasing from Jail

Published: | Author: Stephen Tripodi, Tanya Renn, Carrie Pettus, Elizabeth Curley, Laura Bedard

Learn more about an innovative trauma-based intervention delivered to individuals releasing from a local jail in Florida. This report highlights all aspects of the study, showcases participants' perceptions of participation in trauma-based programming, and presents data on how the intervention affected participants' well-being and behavioral health after completion. 

Category: Trauma
jsswr

Trauma Informed Care Groups with Incarcerated Women: Comparing Seeking Safety and STAIR

Published: | Author: Stephen Tripodi, Michael Killian, Matt Gilmore, Elizabeth Curley, Lauren Herod

 Almost all incarcerated women have experienced at least one lifetime traumatic event that often leads to limited coping skills and mental health problems. This study evaluated two different trauma-informed care groups for incarcerated women – Seeking Safety and STAIR – and found that participants who participated in either program had significant improvements in anxiety, depression, and coping self-efficacy. Results indicate the importance of screening for trauma and offering correctional-based programming to address trauma before release

Category: Trauma, Incarcerated Women
trauma before jail

Traumatic experiences before incarceration in a county jail

Published: | Author: Stephen Tripodi, Elizabeth Curley, Sierra Ross

This report describes the traumatic experiences of individuals prior to their incarceration in a county jail. Nearly 70% of study participants experienced a traumatic event in the year prior to their incarceration, with the majority of those affected reporting more than one traumatic event. Among study participants, 24% were violently assaulted, 15% lost a loved one to homicide, 18% witnessed a serious injury or death, 26% experienced a serious health incident, and 35% received news of the death or injury of a loved one. 

Category: Trauma
jamt

Childhood Polyvictimization and Mental Health Issues among Incarcerated Women

Published: | Author: Stephanie Kennedy, Annelise M. Mennicke, Rajib Paul

Results from a cluster analysis identified four unique childhood polyvictimization: Low Victimization, High Witnessing Violence, High Sexual Abuse, and Severe Polyvictimization. The odds of reporting suicidal ideation, psychosis, and dissociation were higher for women in the High Witnessing, High Sexual Abuse, and/or Severe Polyvictimization clusters compared to the Low Victimization cluster, although pairwise comparisons indicated no significant differences between the three higher-level polyvictimization clusters.

Category: Incarcerated Women, Trauma, Mental Health
journal of traumatic stress

What Trauma Looks Like for Incarcerated Men: A Study of Men’s Lifetime Trauma Exposure in Two State Prisons

Published: | Author: Maria Morrison, Carrie Pettus-Davis, Tanya Renn, Christopher Veeh, Christopher Weatherly

While it is understood that high rates of trauma exposure are common among incarcerated male populations, there is limited data on the nature of the trauma exposure. This study examined the trauma histories of a randomly selected sample of 67 men incarcerated in the Missouri Department of Corrections. The analyses revealed several patterns among study participants, including near universal trauma exposure in adolescence with the most frequent exposures involving witnessing or being proximate to violent deaths of family and friends.

Category: Trauma
Proposing a population-specific intervention approach to treat trauma among men during and after incarceration.

Proposing a population-specific intervention approach to treat trauma among men during and after incarceration.

Published: | Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis, Tanya Renn, Jeffrey Lacasse, Robert Motley

A significant treatment gap exists for incarcerated men with lifetime traumatic experiences. A small research base for trauma interventions for incarcerated women is emerging, but incarcerated men have largely been ignored. Men comprise 90% of the incarcerated population and are at the greatest risk to be rearrested for a new crime after release. 

Category: Trauma, In-Prison Intervention, Reentry
The Relationship Between Interpersonal Victimization and Women’s Criminal Sentencing: A Latent Class Analysis

The Relationship Between Interpersonal Victimization and Women’s Criminal Sentencing: A Latent Class Analysis

Published: | Author: Stephanie Kennedy, Annelise M. Mennicke, Megan Feely, Stephen Tripodi

Latent class analysis was used to identify subgroups of incarcerated women differentiated by experiences of child abuse and intimate partner violence victimization. Four classes were extracted—Low Victimization, Child Abuse, Lifetime Physical and Psychological Abuse, and Lifetime Sexual Abuse; classes were then related to current sentence length, holding criminological predictors constant. Women in the Child Abuse and Lifetime Sexual Abuse classes had significantly longer sentences, despite the lack of significant between-class differences on criminological predictors.

Category: Incarcerated Women, Trauma, Sentencing
Incarcerated Women’s Experiences and Perceptions of Participating in Research

Incarcerated Women’s Experiences and Perceptions of Participating in Research

Published: | Author: Lisa Schelbe, Amanda Hardwick, Ashley N. Wilfong, Cynthia E. Hanifin, Stephen Tripodi, Carrie Pettus-Davis

The research process within prisons has largely considered researchers’ perspectives. Only one known study explicitly examined incarcerated persons’ perceptions and no known studies have explored incarcerated persons’ experiences with research on sensitive topics. This study examines incarcerated women’s experiences with participating in research on victimization. A thematic analysis was conducted on responses to open-ended questions about participating in a research study from 227 women in two prisons who participated in a study about victimization.

Category: Incarcerated Women, Trauma
 Journal of Progressive Human Services

“Behind every woman in prison is a man”: Incarcerated Women’s Perceptions of How We Can Better Help Them in the Context of Interpersonal Victimization

Published: | Author: Stephanie Kennedy, Annelise M. Mennicke

Although women’s rates of incarceration have increased dramatically, the criminal justice system does not meet women’s unique needs. This article used qualitative methods to describe the responses of 113 incarcerated women to the following question: How can we better help women like you? Analyses focused on women’s experiences of victimization and highlighted how to address trauma in prison reform and abolition efforts.

Category: Trauma, Incarcerated Women
Childhood Victimization, Attachment, Psychological Distress, and Substance Use Among Women on Probation and Parole

Childhood Victimization, Attachment, Psychological Distress, and Substance Use Among Women on Probation and Parole

Published: | Author: Katherine M. Winham, Malitta Engstrom, Seana Golder, Tanya Renn, George E. Higgins, and TK Logan

The present analysis was guided by a gendered pathways-based theoretical model and examined relationships between childhood victimization and current attachment, psychological distress and substance use among 406 women with histories of victimization who were on probation and parole in an urban Kentucky county. Structural equation modeling examined relationships among childhood victimization, attachment, psychological distress, and substance use. 

Category: Incarcerated Women, Reentry, Trauma, Probation and Parole
Assessing Attitude and Reincarceration Outcomes Associated With In-Prison Domestic Violence Treatment Program Completion

Assessing Attitude and Reincarceration Outcomes Associated With In-Prison Domestic Violence Treatment Program Completion

Published: | Author: Annelise M. Mennicke, Stephen Tripodi, Christopher Veeh, Dina Wilke, Stephanie Kennedy

Studies indicate that as many as 30%–56% of incarcerated men have perpetrated domestic violence, and that factors related to domestic violence perpetration are associated with long-term recidivism after release. The current study evaluates the effectiveness of an in-prison domestic violence treatment program called STOP and Change Direction to increase positive attitudes toward women, decrease levels of criminal thinking, and reduce general recidivism rates for program completers. 

Category: Trauma, In-Prison Intervention
Examining Dose–Response Relationships Between Childhood Victimization, Depression, Symptoms of Psychosis, and Substance Misuse for Incarcerated Women

Examining Dose–Response Relationships Between Childhood Victimization, Depression, Symptoms of Psychosis, and Substance Misuse for Incarcerated Women

Published: | Author: Stephanie Kennedy, Stephen Tripodi, Carrie Pettus-Davis, Jaime Ayers

The current study uses the dose–response model to examine the relationships between childhood victimization events and subsequent depression, symptoms of psychosis, and substance misuse in a sample of 230 randomly selected incarcerated women in the United States. Results on the frequency of victimization were mixed. In this sample, both frequency of physical abuse and frequency of sexual abuse significantly predicted current symptoms of psychosis, but only frequency of physical abuse significantly predicted substance misuse.

Category: Trauma, Mental Health, Substance Use
Social support among releasing men prisoners with lifetime trauma experiences.

Social support among releasing men prisoners with lifetime trauma experiences.

Published: | Author: Carrie Pettus-Davis

High rates of lifetime trauma experiences exist among men incarcerated in US state and federal prisons. Because lifetime trauma experiences have been linked to problematic behavioral and psychiatric outcomes for incarcerated populations, trauma-informed interventions could improve post-release well-being of releasing men prisoners with trauma histories. Social support has consistently been found to have a positive impact on trauma-related outcomes in non-incarcerated populations.

Category: Reentry, Trauma, Social Support
The relationship between childhood abuse and psychosis for women prisoners: Assessing the importance of frequency and type of victimization.

The relationship between childhood abuse and psychosis for women prisoners: Assessing the importance of frequency and type of victimization.

Published: | Author: Stephanie Kennedy, Stephen Tripodi, Carrie Pettus-Davis

This study examines the relationship between childhood victimization and self-reported current symptoms of psychosis in an incarcerated female population in the United States. Participants are 159 randomly selected women incarcerated in two North Carolina state prisons. Participants completed a battery of self-report measures to assess childhood victimization and current and lifetime experience of audio/visual hallucinations and delusions.

Category: Trauma, Mental Health, Incarcerated Women
Nonfatal Suicidal Behavior Among Women Prisoners: The Predictive Roles of Childhood Victimization, Childhood Neglect, and Childhood Positive Support

Nonfatal Suicidal Behavior Among Women Prisoners: The Predictive Roles of Childhood Victimization, Childhood Neglect, and Childhood Positive Support

Published: | Author: Stephen Tripodi, Eyitayo Onifade, Carrie Pettus-Davis

Women entering prison report high rates of childhood victimization. Women in prison also report higher rates of nonfatal suicidal behavior (self-reported suicide attempts) than women in the general population and similar rates to their male counterparts despite having significantly lower suicide rates than males in the general population. Yet, there is a dearth of research that addresses the relationship between childhood victimization and suicidality for women prisoners in the United States. 

Category: Trauma, Social Support, Mental Health, Incarcerated Women