Description

Inpatient on site (no telepsychiatry) at Central Prison a male facility Raleigh, NC.

The position isneededfor 2- 3 days a week, 8-hour days, Monday-Friday.

A prison psychologist works with prisoners, offering treatment and support through their psychological problems, anger management issues and substance abuse. Their work environment may range from asylums for the criminally insane, to jails, courthouses and maximum security prisons. Inmates grapple with a complex array of issues that span poverty, abuse, trauma and drug addiction. According to the American Psychological Association, prison psychologists are tasked with treating inmates who may be a violent offender, sexual predator, white-collar criminal or murderer both for existing mental disorders and to prevent them from committing any additional crimes.
The day-to-day tasks of a prison psychologist may include:

• facilitating individual and group therapy
• conducting client assessment crisis intervention
• applying drug-treatment services
• contributing to employee-assistance programs
• conducting initial and developmental mental health screenings
• According to an article Marisa Mauro, PsyD wrote for Psychology Today on her work as a prison psychologist, both psychologists and psychiatrists take on-call shifts for mental health crises, which may mean addressing suicidal thoughts, homicidal thoughts, victimization, rape, major depression, mania, panic attacks, death or grief. Additionally, psychologists may receive emergency calls for inmates acting out of the ordinary, as that can increase an inmate's risk of victimization.

In some cases, prison psychologists may administer court-ordered assessments, which are often applied to better understand a defendant's sentence, and whether prison time or probation is appropriate. For example, an assessment may establish whether a defendant should receive parole with a requirement of attending therapy or if prison time should be ordered.
One critical component of the role is to support rehabilitation, which includes helping inmates establish the skillset necessary to manage anger, mental health, and addiction and mitigating the chance they will return to prison.

Qualifications