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Abstract: 

This “case note” examines the author’s experience with “Mr. B”—a resident in the Washington prison system who presented “the most significant challenges faced in my six years working as a psychologist in a state prison.” Mr. B presented an extreme case in self-harm, and in manifold ways revealed the inadequacy of traditional security-focused classification regimes, and the misguided practice of characterizing self-harming episodes as “violations” which in turn limited Mr. B’s housing options as dictated by the classification system. In tracing the long and difficult path of treatment, Dr. Quirk explores in detail a case that will ring familiar to practitioners in prison and jail systems everywhere. Dr. Quirk concludes that “as long as prisons continue to house the seriously mentally ill, the traumatic brain injured, the intellectually disabled, those with complex trauma, and the developmentally delayed, then our current systems of traditional (security) classification are inadequate.”

Keywords: security-focused classification; self-harm; close observation area; RNR; Intensive Treatment Unit

Affiliations:  1: Washington State Department of Corrections.