Cross-Disciplinary Study of a Marginalized Group
The findings, published in a new scientific article, highlight an acute need for specialized and integrated health services in correctional care.The publication underscores the pressing need for improved health follow-up and treatment services within prison and preventive detention settings.
The two projects successfully engaged in cross-disciplinary collaboration on a registry-based study focusing on the mental health of those sentenced to preventive detention—a small and often overlooked group who have committed the most severe crimes.
• The PriSUD project (Diagnosing and treating substance use disorders in prison) at the Norwegian Centre for Addiction Research (SERAF), University of Oslo, led by Professor Anne Bukten, aims to improve the diagnosis and treatment of substance use disorders in the prison population.
• The ULTPEN project (Ultimea poena: The ultimate punishment? Long-term imprisonment and preventive detention in Norway) at the Department of Public Health and Nursing, NTNU, led by Associate Professor Catherine E. Appleton, investigates the long-term consequences of long-term imprisonment and preventive detention.
The article's authors represent this inter-institutional collaboration: John Todd-Kvam (NTNU, KRUS), Berit Johnsen (KRUS), Catherine Appleton (NTNU/SIFER), Marianne Riksheim Stavseth (RusForsk, OUS), Hilde Dahl (NTNU, SIFER), and Anne Bukten (SERAF, UiO, KRUS).
Key Findings: Extreme Burden of Severe Disorders
The registry-based findings document a severity of illness that requires immediate attention:
• High Prevalence of Mental Health Disorders: The prevalence of mental health disorders was high across all comparison groups in the study.
• Overwhelming Burden in Preventive Detention: In the preventive detention population (n=202), almost all (95.0%) had at least one mental health diagnosis during the study period.
• Severe Mental Disorder: 73.8% of the preventive detention population had received a diagnosis for a severe mental disorder during the observation period. This is a marked difference compared to the total prison population (28.3%) and a general comparison group (23.7%).
• Complexity of Diagnoses: Approximately one third of the preventive detention population had a combination of three or more of the five most common diagnoses examined in the study.
Implications for Policy and Practice
The collaboration between PriSUD and ULTPEN underscores the value of connecting diverse research environments to address complex societal challenges related to justice, substance use, and health. This cross-disciplinary approach is fundamental to generating critical knowledge about groups that are difficult to access via traditional research methods.
The study's findings provide a strong empirical basis for a necessary reassessment of the health care structure for individuals in preventive detention. The results highlight a heavy comorbidity burden that necessitates specialized, holistic, and integrated treatment modalities for both substance use disorders and mental health.
The findings are expected to have great relevance and direct implications for policy development and clinical practice within both correctional services and the public health care system.