Occupational Barriers During Incarceration and Quality of Life

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Ninety-three percent of incarcerated individuals are eventually released (Petersilia, 2011), yet recidivism rates in the United States reveal that more than half of released prisoners return within 5 years (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2016). Occupational deprivation during incarceration has been identified as a significant hindrance to successful community integration (Whiteford, 2000). This study attempted to identify whether a correlation existed between the number of barriers experienced during incarceration and quality of life after release of previously incarcerated adults.

METHOD: This survey study included demographic questions, a checklist of barriers developed on the basis of a literature review, and the World Health Organization (WHO) Quality of Life short form (WHOQOL–BREF; WHO, 1996). The WHOQOL–BREF measures quality of life, health satisfaction, physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and environment. Because the WHOQOL–BREF contains items that are known through previous research to contribute to successful community transition, we used the scores to indicate the success of participants’ community reintegration.

The electronic survey was distributed via Facebook and Craigslist. The 48 adult participants consisted of 30 men, 17 women, and 1 unidentified. The number of barriers and quality of life scores were analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY) using Pearson correlation.

RESULTS: A significant negative correlation was found between the number of barriers experienced during incarceration and the WHOQOL–BREF Environment domain, r(43) = –.297, p = .048. The Environment domain includes measures of financial resources, freedom, physical safety, security, accessibility and quality of health and social care, home environment, opportunities for acquiring new information and skills, participation in leisure activities, physical environment, and transportation (WHO, 1996). We found significant correlations between the Environment domain and all other domains, including psychological health (p < .001), quality of life (p < .001), physical health (p < .001), social relationships (p < .001), and health satisfaction (p = .003).

CONCLUSION: Implementing occupation-based programs during incarceration that address the environment domain may reduce the number of barriers experienced during incarceration and increase the environmental aspects of quality of life. Improving environmental quality of life could increase overall quality of life, health satisfaction, psychological health, physical health, and social relationships of previously incarcerated adults, thereby possibly reducing the risk of recidivism.

IMPACT STATEMENT: Exposing the relationship between occupational barriers during incarceration and quality of life after release may help increase awareness of the necessity of program reform to ultimately benefit inmates, the correctional system, and society. This study solidifies a role for occupational therapy in the prison system by revealing the potential effects of occupational deprivation, which may guide future occupational therapy practice and foster policy changes to increase occupation-based programming within correctional facilities.

References

Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2016). Total correctional population. Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=11

Petersilia, J. (2011). Beyond the prison bubble. National Institute of Justice Journal, 268. Retrieved from https://www.nij.gov/journals/268/pages/prison-bubble.aspx

Whiteford, G. (2000). Occupational deprivation: A global challenge in the new millennium. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 63, 200–204. https://doi.org/10.1177/030802260006300503

World Health Organization. (1996). WHOQOL–BREF: Introduction, administration, scoring and generic version of the assessment. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mental_health/media/en/76.pdf?ua=1