Citation

Lee B, Gilligan J. J. Public Health (Oxford) 2005.

Affiliation

Yale University, 34 Park Street, New Haven, CN 06519, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/pubmed/fdi018

PMID

15820996

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The usual modes of incarceration have not been found to curb violence significantly, even while in custody. A jail-based programme called the Resolve to Stop the Violence Project (RSVP) was created with the hypothesis that immersing men with a history of serious, recent and often multiple violent crimes in an intensive, multi-modal in-house 'culture' would serve as a possible first step to pre-venting further violence. METHODS: Two years of incident reports were reviewed for the programme dorm and a regular dorm, both typically serving an average of 56 male inmates of similar composi-tion, for historic and between-dorm comparisons. RESULTS: During the year before RSVP began, there were 24 violent incidents serious enough to have constituted felonies had they occurred in the community (roughly three per month) in the 62-bed dorm. During the first month RSVP was in effect there was one such incident; and for the follow-ing 12 months, there were none. During that same year, the control dorm that still followed traditional jail practices had 28 violent incidents. CONCLUSIONS: Correctional efforts may improve with the transformation of subcultures into therapeutic communities that facilitate the practice of prosocial skills over attitudes and mores that engender violence.