DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03354.v1
title: Women Coping in Prison at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women in Virginia, 1999-2000
title: Version 1

description: This study contributed to the growing interest in mental
illness and impairment among incarcerated individuals. It focused on
the larger spectrum of psychopathology that characterized the general,
nonhospitalized population at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for
Women in Virginia. Part 1 consists of clinical data obtained through
several questionnaires completed by a sample of 812 inmates between
April 1999 and January 2000. Parts 2 through 4 consist of additional
clinical data on subsamples of the Part 1 sample that were obtained
between June 1999 and July 2000 through interviews and self-enumerated
questionnaires. Part 5 contains data on inmate behavior and attitudes
obtained through questionnaires completed by correctional officers.
description: This study contributed to the growing interest in
 mental illness and impairment among incarcerated individuals. It
 focused on the larger spectrum of psychopathology that characterized
 the general, nonhospitalized population at the Fluvanna Correctional
 Center for Women in Virginia. The study was guided by three primary
 goals: (1) to explore the psychiatric symptoms, childhood and adult
 victimizations, and personality disorders that characterize a female
 prison population, (2) to explore the impact of these experiences and
 conditions on institutional adjustment and to validate the Prison
 Adjustment Questionnaire (PAQ), an instrument developed for use with
 men, on a female sample, and (3) to explore the relationship of these
 psychiatric conditions and past experiences to the violence
perpetrated by female inmates in the prison and in the community.
description: The data in Part 1, Stage One Data, involved a
 prison-wide screening of 802 inmates between April 1999 and January
 2000. Inmates were approached by a member of the research staff, who
 was accompanied by a correctional officer. The staff member described
 the purpose of the research, and inmates were invited to complete
 several self-enumerated questionnaires in the prison's educational
 center. They were informed that the instruments could be read to
 anyone who preferred that mode of administration. The questionnaires
 included a one-page demographic summary, the Brief Symptom Inventory
 (BSI), a measure of mental health symptom status, the Structured
 Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV (DSM-IV)
 Personality Disorders Personality Screening Questionnaire (SCID II
 PQ), used to identify women with indices of Cluster B psychopathology
 who could be included in Stage Two of the study, the Prison Adjustment
 Questionnaire (PAQ), a questionnaire specifically designed for use
 with incarcerated populations that measures institutional functioning,
 the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS), the Prison Violence Inventory
 (PVI), an instrument designed for this study and used to assess
 whether participants were victims or perpetrators of violent acts
 since being incarcerated, the Victimization During Childhood and
 Before Incarceration Questionnaire (Vic-I), and the Parenting Stress
 and Attachment Questionnaire, an instrument designed for this
 study. Part 1 also includes data on criminal and institutional history
 that were obtained from the Virginia Department of Corrections. Part
 2, SCID II Data (Stage Two), contains data on a 261-inmate subsample
 of the Part 1 sample. This subsample was administered the Structured
 Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Personality Disorders (SCID II), a
 semi-structured interview, between June 1999 and July 2000. The
 interviews were used to determine whether the inmates could be
 diagnosed with any of the ten DSM-IV personality disorders. A number
 of training sessions were held with the SCID II interviewers, which
 involved mock interviews and double-coding of ten inmate interviews by
 each interviewer. The presence of personality pathology was calculated
 using both dichotomous and continuous scores. The continuous scores
 reflected the number of criteria met for each disorder, and the
 diagnostic cut-off followed the traditional DSM-IV diagnostic
 procedures. Part 3, Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and HCR-20:
 Assessing Risk of Violence Data (Stage Two), contains data from a
 second interview with 119 members of the Part 2 subsample. Inmates who
 were administered the SCID II interview were contacted some months
 later and asked to participate in this interview, which included the
 PCL-R and the HCR-20. Extensive training was conducted with the
 interviewers on these instruments. Each interviewer coded eight taped
 interviews and double-coded an additional five interviews. Prior to
 each interview, interviewers reviewed a comprehensive file summary
 that was compiled by other members of the research team. Part 4,
 Personal Support Questionnaire Data (Stage Two), contains data on a
 216-inmate subsample of the Part 1 sample. This subsample was
 administered the Personal Support Questionnaire, which gauged the
 amount of social support inmates were receiving, the State-Trait Anger
 Expression Inventory (STAXI), and the Beck Depression Index (BDI), and
 the PAQ was readministered. Part 5, Correctional Officer Data,
 consists of data on the behavior and attitudes of a 389-inmate
 subsample of the Part 1 sample. These data were collected through
surveys of correctional officers between May and July 2000.
description: Part 1, Stage One Data, demographic variables
 include age, race, number of times married, current marital status,
 number of children, last year of education completed, living
 arrangements before incarceration, and whether the respondent had been
 incarcerated before. Other variables include answers to the 53 items
 on the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and BSI scales for somatization,
 obsessive-compulsive disorder, interpersonal sensitivity, depression,
 anxiety, hostility, phobia, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism,
 answers to the 119 items on the SCID II PQ, number of criteria
 respondents met for different personality disorders on the SCID II PQ
 (paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal, antisocial, borderline, histrionic,
 narcissistic, avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive), whether
 respondents could be diagnosed with any of these personality
 disorders, answers to the 22 items on the Prison Violence Inventory
 (PVI) and scores based on those responses, answers to the 11 questions
 on the Victimization Inventory (Vic-I) and scores based on those
 responses, answers to the 30 items on the Prison Adjustment
 Questionnaire (PAQ) and scores for internal, external, physical,
 distress, and conflict scales and other variables derived from PAQ
 responses, answers to the 30 items on the Barratt Impulsivity Scale
 (BIS) and scores for nonplanning, motor, and cognitive scales. Other
 Part 1 variables are institutional misconduct, date of entering
 Fluvanna, date of first conviction, time served, type of convictions,
 and sentence length. Part 2, SCID II Data (Stage Two), variables
 include whether the inmate was part of the experiment or control
 group, results for each item in the interview in both dichotomous and
 continuous variables, and whether the inmate met the criteria for any
 personality disorders. Part 3, PCL-R and HCR-20 Data (Stage Two),
 variables include all of the variables in Part 2 (but only for the
 subsample covered by Part 3) and seven variables that provide scores
 for the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and the HCR-20:
 Assessing Risk of Violence. Part 4, Personal Support Questionnaire
 Data (Stage Two), variables include answers to items on the Personal
 Support Questionnaire, answers to STAXI items, answers to BDI items,
 answers to PAQ items, scores for the STAXI, BDI, and PAQ, and inmate
 demographic information. Part 5, Correctional Officers Data, variables
 include inmate demographic information, answers to items rating
 adjustment of inmates to prison, problems with inmates' personal
 characteristics, behavior toward other inmates, and behavior toward
 staff, and answers to 90 items relating to inmates' general behavior
and attitudes.
description: Response Rates: Not available.
description: Presence of Common Scales: Scales include Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS), Beck
 Depression Index (BDI), Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), HCR-20:
 Assessing Risk of Violence (Version 2), Parenting Stress and
 Attachment Questionnaire, Prison Adjustment Questionnaire (PAQ),
 Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), State-Trait Anger Expression
 Inventory (STAXI), Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV
 Personality Disorders (SCID-II), SCID-II Personality Questionnaire,
 Victimization During Childhood and Before Incarceration (Vic-I), and
Violence and Aggression During Incarceration Questionnaire (PVI).
description: Members of the subsample in Part 2, SCID II Data (Stage
 Two), were selected using scores on the SCID II Screen and BSI from
 Part 1, Stage One Data. To be included in this subsample, inmates had
 to be nonpsychotic. The subsample included an experimental group and
 a control group. The experimental group included randomly selected
 women whose SCID II PQ scores suggested a Cluster B personality
 disorder diagnosis: antisocial, histrionic, or narcissistic. The
 control group was designed to contain at least 50 nonpsychotic women
who did not meet criteria for a Cluster B diagnosis.
description: Datasets: 
DS0: Study-Level Files
DS1: Stage One Data
DS2: SCID II Data (Stage Two)
DS3: PCL-R and HCR-20 Data (Stage Two)
DS4: Personal Support Questionnaire Data (Stage Two)
DS5: Correctional Officers Data
description: Inmates at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women
between April 1999 and July 2000. Smallest Geographic Unit: none
description: The user guide, codebook, and data collection
instrument are provided by ICPSR in a Portable Document Format (PDF)
file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems, Incorporated
and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe
Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat
Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site.