.....psychologists working in prisons in the United States, Boothby & Clements (2000) found some disturbing trends in corrections. Although the number of prison psychologists has doubled in the past twenty years, the vast majority of prison psychologists remain Caucasian males who may be unable to address the diverse needs of the incarcerated community. Biases and assumptions about inmates may also hinder the ability of inmates to seek and receive psychological treatment. Moreover, a full third of prison psychologist work time is spent on administrative duties -- more than the time spent on direct treatment. Only 26% of their work time is devoted to directly treating the inmates, meaning that structural and institutional variables are impeding the delivery of quality mental health care to the prison community.Interestingly, the profession of clinical psychology was practically born in the prison context. As Magaletta, et al. (2016) point out, prison wardens partnered with psychologists seeking training opportunities and subjects for experiments since the early 20th century. Prison psychologists have had at their disposal access to subjects for research into the endogenous and exogenous factors that may cause or contribute to criminal behavior. Prisoners have long been viewed as a relatively dispensable part of the human population and the lack of attention given to their treatment remains...
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