IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v13y2016i2p182-d63266.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

From Punishment to Treatment: The “Clinical Alternative to Punitive Segregation” (CAPS) Program in New York City Jails

Author

Listed:
  • Sarah Glowa-Kollisch

    (Correctional Health Services, New York City Health + Hospitals, New York, NY 11101, USA)

  • Fatos Kaba

    (Correctional Health Services, New York City Health + Hospitals, New York, NY 11101, USA)

  • Anthony Waters

    (Correctional Health Services, New York City Health + Hospitals, New York, NY 11101, USA)

  • Y. Jude Leung

    (Correctional Health Services, New York City Health + Hospitals, New York, NY 11101, USA)

  • Elizabeth Ford

    (Correctional Health Services, New York City Health + Hospitals, New York, NY 11101, USA)

  • Homer Venters

    (Correctional Health Services, New York City Health + Hospitals, New York, NY 11101, USA)

Abstract

The proliferation of jails and prisons as places of institutionalization for persons with serious mental illness (SMI) has resulted in many of these patients receiving jail-based punishments, including solitary confinement. Starting in 2013, the New York City (NYC) jail system developed a new treatment unit for persons with SMI who were judged to have violated jail rules (and previously would have been punished with solitary confinement) called the Clinical Alternative to Punitive Segregation (CAPS) unit. CAPS is designed to offer a full range of therapeutic activities and interventions for these patients, including individual and group therapy, art therapy, medication counseling and community meetings. Each CAPS unit requires approximately $1.5 million more investment per year, largely in additional staff as compared to existing mental health units, and can house approximately 30 patients. Patients with less serious mental illness who received infractions were housed on units that combined solitary confinement with some clinical programming, called Restrictive Housing Units (RHU). Between 1 December 2013 and 31 March 2015, a total of 195 and 1433 patients passed through the CAPS and RHU units, respectively. A small cohort of patients experienced both CAPS and RHU ( n = 90). For these patients, their rates of self-harm and injury were significantly lower while on the CAPS unit than when on the RHU units. Improvements in clinical outcomes are possible for incarcerated patients with mental illness with investment in new alternatives to solitary confinement. We have started to adapt the CAPS approach to existing mental health units as a means to promote better clinical outcomes and also help prevent jail-based infractions. The cost of these programs and the dramatic differences in length of stay for patients who earn these jail-based infractions highlight the need for alternatives to incarceration, some of which have recently been announced in NYC.

Suggested Citation

  • Sarah Glowa-Kollisch & Fatos Kaba & Anthony Waters & Y. Jude Leung & Elizabeth Ford & Homer Venters, 2016. "From Punishment to Treatment: The “Clinical Alternative to Punitive Segregation” (CAPS) Program in New York City Jails," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-10, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:2:p:182-:d:63266
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/2/182/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/2/182/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kaba, F. & Lewis, A. & Glowa-Kollisch, S. & Hadler, J. & Lee, D. & Alper, H. & Selling, D. & MacDonald, R. & Solimo, A. & Parsons, A. & Venters, H., 2014. "Solitary confinement and risk of self-harm among jail inmates," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 104(3), pages 442-447.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Caitlin Patler & Jeffrey O. Sacha & Nicholas Branic, 2018. "The black box within a black box: Solitary confinement practices in a subset of U.S. immigrant detention facilities," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 435-465, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:2:p:182-:d:63266. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.