Eighteen attempts in 3 years at Paparua, Addington

Press, 9 May 1985, Page 13

Eighteen attempts in 3 years at Paparua, Addington

Since 1982 there have been 12 attempted suicides at Paparua Prison and one successful suicide. Mr Charles Hood, the prison superintendent, says 80 per cent of those cases were minor suicide “gestures,” aimed at getting attention. The rest were serious.

In the same period Addington Remand Prison has had five attempted suicides, only one of which Mr Hood describes as serious. Prisoners who behave in this way are normally placed under observation, being checked every 15 minutes, and are referred to a psychiatrist. They may be put on medication. “We haven’t had suicides here for some time,” he says. “However, a lot of people make cuts on their wrists as an attention-seeking device.

“At Addington, there have also been deaths by overdoses of drugs. It’s a remand institution, and people received there may be under the influence of alcohol and drugs and must be put under observation for their protection.” Mr Hood says he has found mainly that apparent suicide attempts are attention-seeking devices, not genuine attempts. The ideal, says Mr Hood, would be for every inmate to be seen by a psychologist. There would have to be two psychologists on the fulltime staff to do this. “Whether that would be worthwhile is difficult to say. The prisoner has got to want to be helped,” Mr Hood adds. “I’d agree that the majority of inmates are disturbed to some degree and might benefit from psychological counselling. But in my experience there are some, no matter what support they receive, who are, unfortunately, criminals and would maintain that attitude.”

He considers the prison environment not conducive to effective treatment in a large number of cases.

“The courts send people to prison in most cases to protect the public. The majority have already had the benefit of fines, probation, and periodic detention, and prison is a last resort. They have flouted the law and the leniency of the courts in the past. Violent offenders must be in prison for the protection of the public.” Paparua’s classification commit-

tee, which includes the deputy superintendent, specialist staff, a psychologist, divisional officers, and the chaplain, determines each prisoner’s security rating, the type of work he should do, and where he should be imprisoned. Mr Hood says any inmate showing unusual behaviour would be referred to the divisional officer in charge of his wing, to the classification committee, or directly to the superintendent for referral to a psychologist. Some prisoners arrive with a court instruction that they receive psychological help or psychiatric attention. Mr Hood says his concern is not being able to treat those prisoners who are genuinely psychologically disturbed. They get some treatment through the four hours of psychiatrist’s time that Paparua gets each week, but some need ongoing treatment that is not available in prison. “Any psychiatric hospital is reluctant to accept prison inmates, particularly disruptive ones,” he says. “They say their nursing staff are not custodial staff.”

Prison staff get psychology training “to a very basic level.” Prison officers have a compulsory preliminary training course after several months on the job which

includes papers on psychology. If they wish to take further examinations for promotion these also include papers on psychology. “But it’s very basic,” Mr Hood emphasises.

Mr Harry Cohen, regional psychologist for the Justice Department, says that whether a prisoner needing psychological treatment actually gets to see a psychologist depends on the availability of psychologists. “If there’s a high level of service there would be a high level of demand,” he adds. “If they know it’s a small service, they won’t bother.”

The department has four psychologists in Christchurch, but because of a change of policy two years ago they are engaged mostly on research into the best ways of treating those prisoners most likely to reoffend and use up most of the department's resources.

Clinical work with the 250 prisoners at Paparua and 60 at Addington, plus about 1000 persons on probation, is contracted out to psychologists in private practice. Mr Cohen says it was thought at the time that there were enough private practitioners to fill the gap, but for a long time he could not find any clinical psychologists to do the clinical work in prisons on an hourly basis. In the last two years three psychologists have resigned from the department to go into private practice, and they have been employed to work with prisoners and probationers. He says there are enough psychologists to meet the present demand, but that does not mean there are enough to meet the needs of prisoners. All inmates have demonstrated an inability to live harmoniously and to respect the rights and property of others, and in every case psychological treatment might change their behaviour.

He says some prisoners are just not treatable, but most are, although at the expenditure of an inordinate amount of time. “They would need weekly sessions for several years to do any good. Once a person is referred and taken on, we try to see them through with weekly sessions until they are released. There’s also some group work, and that is efficient and has particular advantages of its own.”