Maladaptation and Prison Environmental Preferences Among Inmate Parasuicides

This article reports on a study of 33 male prison inmates (New York State Prisons) who had engaged in deliberate, non-fatal self harm in the first two years of incarceration. The Prison Preference Inventory was administered & adaptation variables were measured. A global adaptation measure was created & inmates were divided into good & poor adaptors with significantly different environmental preferences. Prior psychiatric history did not differentiate the 2 groups. (26 refs.)