psychological instruments in prisons

Brief Jail Mental Health Screen
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Brief Jail Mental Health Screen (BJMHS)
A brief jail mental health screening is a process that is done to individuals who are admitted to the prisons. The screening aims at discovering the mental health of an inmate so that the officers can know the procedure to be followed later. The test is necessary to determine whether the detainee will be welcomed to the prison or will be referred for other mental health assessment tests (Policy Research Associates, 2018). The test has eight questions that aims at knowing whether an individual has ever had mental health problems, is under medication, and whether the person feels useless among other question. After the inmate has answered the questions, the officer records the responses and comments on whether the person understands the questions, presence of language barrier, influenced by alcohol, or non- cooperative (Policy Research Associates, 2018). The comments are not limited to the ones above. Thus, the officer may record any extra observations he has made.
The Brief Jail Mental Health Screen (BJMHS) is not very accurate and may have some bias. Sometimes individuals who have undergone the screening can be referred to other forms of tests after their behavior is observed to be questionable. The BJMHS test is more accurate in men than in women (Trestman, Appelbaum, & Metzner, 2015). The results may show that a woman is psychologically fit but there is a need for a further checkup to confirm that the results from the BJMHS (Barber, October 26, 2016).

Therefore, the screening has some weaknesses. The referral for further mental tests that include Correctional Mental Health Screen for Men and another for women (Martin et al., 2013). The tests mentioned above may improve the accuracy the assessment and reduce bias.
References
Barber, J. (October 26, 2016) Mental Health Screening in Local & Regional Jails. Interim Commissioner Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. Retrieved 15 March 2018 from file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/Documents/screen%20jails.pdfMartin, M. S., Colman, I., Simpson, A. I., & McKenzie, K. (2013). Mental health screening tools in correctional institutions: a systematic review. BMC Psychiatry, 13(1), 275.
Policy Research Associates. (2018). Brief Jail Mental Health Screen – Policy Research Associates. Policy Research Associates. Retrieved 15 March 2018, from https://www.prainc.com/?product=brief-jail-mental-health-screenTrestman, R., Appelbaum, K., & Metzner, J. (Eds.). (2015).Oxford textbook of correctional psychiatry. Oxford University Press.