This section provides an overview on why and how routine screening of individuals’ risks, needs, and strengths is an essential component of an effective jail transition intervention strategy. Remember that screens are not used to diagnose an individual’s risk or needs, but only to identify the individual for further assessment.
We start with the five Ws (who, what where, when, and why) and one H (how) to help us with our understanding.
Universal screening is a key element of the TJC model. This means that everyone entering your facility, regardless of length of stay or conviction status, is screened for risk to reoffend, pretrial release, health, and behavioral concerns that might affect transition to the community. These screens help to identify:
Physical health, behavioral health, risk of drug or alcohol withdrawal, and suicide risk screens are probably administered to every new arrestee arriving at your facility. In addition, the TJC model recommends a quick risk-to-reoffend and pretrial release screens. These screens allow you to group the arrestees into low, medium, and high risk and needs categories.
A TJC Triage Matrix goal is to identify low-risk offenders and assign them to minimal intervention to prevent the inefficient expenditure of time and resources on extensive assessment and programming, and to separate low-risk individuals from their higher risk counterparts.
Include the following items in screening to evaluate risk within the jail and in the community:
In Section 3, we discuss a number of valid, short, and easily administered screens available to identify an incarcerated person for further assessment.
Screening should be done at intake during central booking or soon after.
Screening takes place early on. Here are some key times when administering screens is most common:
On arrival at the jail
During the booking process
Before the first court appearance
Screening is normally the first opportunity to quickly capture basic information about a person’s risk and needs and is used to determine if a fuller assessment is warranted. Screening also offers information important to jail classification, pretrial release, and, at the evaluation stage, for comparison of groups, programs, and/or interventions.
In short, effective screening practices help jail administrators and professionals throughout the local system of criminal justice first understand who is in the jail and why. Screening information can then be used to facilitate discussion about what general system practices might be utilized to insure the most effective and efficient use of system resources and the best long-term public safety outcomes.
A system of valid and reliable screens requires the following steps:
Now that you understand the five Ws and one H of screening, you will want to take the time to conduct a case flow analysis of your present screening process to understand fully the reasons you perform screening and what you will do with the information obtained. A Screening and Assessment Case Flow Process template is available in Section 1 of Module 8: Tailored Transition Interventions.
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1 Mark D. Martin and Thomas A. Rosazza, Resource Guide for Jail Administrators (Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice, 2004), p. 141.