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Purpose:Incarcerated women serving life sentences are a growing subpopulation with multiple mental health needs. However, no existing interventions have been designed for or tested with this population.Method:This study tested a gender-responsive, trauma-informed intervention ( Beyond Violence) and examined changes in incarcerated women's mental health and anger expression. Pre-, post-, and follow-up surveys were administered to two treatment groups with women with life sentences ( n = 26). Multilevel modeling was conducted to assess changes over time for women's mental health and anger expression and to compare outcomes for women based on time served.Results:Significant positive outcomes were found for all women for some anger measures, and women who had been in prison for less than 10 years started with higher scores on multiple measures and showed significant changes over time.Discussion:This study offers insight into social work practice, policy advocacy, and research for this population of women.

Incarcerated women in the United States commonly experience prison-based mental health treatment. Feminist scholars stress the need to explore how incarcerated women exercise agency while navigating controlling treatment dynamics and how they experience these dynamics in relation to aspects of their selves (e.g., their thoughts and feelings). To explore these dynamics, we conducted semi-structured individual interviews with 42 incarcerated women in a Midwestern state prison and with life history calendars, elucidated women's treatment encounters over time. Through analysis of these interviews, we contend that women experienced dehumanizing dynamics within treatment, particularly curtailed communication from the staff that silenced women, created unfamiliar selves, and contributed to physical harm and psychological harm. Based on these findings, we conceptualize prison-based mental health treatment as health harm rather than health care. We also found that women responded to controlling dynamics with forms of self-preservation including strategies of treatment decision-making that affirmed their selves, active treatment refusal as self-protection, and forming meaningful connections with others that validated aspects of their selves. Based on women's care-based strategies, further feminist theorizing and practice directions are needed that align with, build upon, and are guided by incarcerated women's varied definitions of care to improve their mental health and well-being.

Objective:Beyond Violence (BV), a new prevention program for women with assaultive offenses, demonstrated feasibility in previous studies. This study's purpose is to assess the efficacy of BV using a randomized control trial.Method:Eligible women were randomly assigned to treatment as usual (TAU) and the experimental condition (BV). Measures of mental health and anger were administered to women at pre- and postintervention.Results:Outcomes reveal positive changes for both groups. Significant between-group differences favor BV on measures of anxiety and anger. Moreover, BV is cost-effective with only 20 sessions compared to 44 sessions for TAU.Conclusion:The demonstrated effectiveness of BV is promising for this underserved population of women. Next steps: Replication and assessing long-term outcomes.