Somewhere over the Rainbow: Improving Violence Risk Management in Institutional Settings

Abstract

Tackling violence in prisons and forensic institutions is a key role for mental health professionals. Major strides have been made in the last twenty years in the evaluation and management of individual risk factors. However, the understanding of situational—or institutional—risk factors is less well developed. This special section considers PRISM. PRISM is a set of structured professional guidelines for assessing and managing the risk of violence in institutions. In contrast to better known forms of structured judgment approaches the focus of concern is the functioning of the institution, not the individual patient or prisoner. In this introductory paper we describe the development of PRISM, its conceptual and empirical base, and demonstrate and propose a range of applications for the approach. We argue that PRISM can have value in a range of important practical tasks, but also, PRISM can be used to enhance our theoretical understanding of the risk processes that underpin institutional violence.