The Resolve to Stop the Violence Project: Transforming an in-house culture of violence through a jail-based programme

Abstract

Background: The usual modes of incarceration have not been found to curb violence significantly, even while in custody. A jail-based programme called the Resolve to Stop the Violence Project (RSVP) was created with the hypothesis that immersing men with a history of serious, recent and often multiple violent crimes in an intensive, multi-modal in-house 'culture' would serve as a possible first step to preventing further violence. Methods: Two years of incident reports were reviewed for the programme dorm and a regular dorm, both typically serving an average of 56 male inmates of similar composition, for historic and between-dorm comparisons. Results: During the year before RSVP began, there were 24 violent incidents serious enough to have constituted felonies had they occurred in the community (roughly three per month) in the 62-bed dorm. During the first month RSVP was in effect there was one such incident; and for the following 12 months, there were none. During that same year, the control dorm that still followed traditional jail practices had 28 violent incidents. Conclusions: Correctional efforts may improve with the transformation of subcultures into therapeutic communities that facilitate the practice of prosocial skills over attitudes and mores that engender violence. © The Author 2005, Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Faculty of Public Health. All rights reserved.