Neuse Correctional

Today my supervisor and I visited Neuse Correctional Institution in Goldsboro, NC. I arrived later than expected because I had to drive in rain the entire 40 or so miles from Greenville. My supervisor set up this visit because he wanted me to see what a diagnostic center is like and also have to opportunity to talk with some of the mental health staff. Neuse Correctional is a minimum custody facility which means the inmates get more priveleges than they would at Eastern which is a medium custody facility. These priveleges can include, if the inmate goes without infractions, work release to work at places outside the prisons and home visits. Before visiting this facility I didn't even know such things existed or were possibilities for inmates.

The prisoners also have more freedom to walk around outside between buildings. The prison is set up like a small college campus enclosed by two layers of barbed wire fencing. There are dormitory buildings, a programs building, and a cafeteria and probably other buildings that I wasn't able to see because I mostly stayed in the programs area and took a brief look at one of the dormitories.

Neuse is the largest misdemeanor processing facility in the state. After inmates leave jail they are sent to Neuse and processed and then a few may remain at Neuse but most of them will be transported to other faicilities. Processing includes creating or updating an inmate's files in the system which include their background, medical history, dental history, mental health history, substance abuse history, if any gang affiliation history, crime history, and education level. All of the people involved with processing have fifteen days to compile all of this on the inmate. It's pretty neat the whole system they have set up to do this effectively.

Neuse also has a mental health unit at their facility which includes two psychologists, a psychiatrist, a social worker and a licensed clinical social worker. I was able to sit down and speak with the chief psychologist for about 30 minutes. He estimated that about 95% of the inmates that come in have some history of substance use and abuse and for many of them what may have been diagnosed as a mental disorder such as bipolar disorder is really the result of substance abuse. This is not to blame the doctors the inmates once saw but to say that because of the way the mental health system is set up many of these doctors were only able to see the inmates a few times that were far apart, not allowing them to gather the full picture that a staff psychologist who works in the prison would see. I also spoke with the clinical social worker who basically has all the responsibilities of a staff psychologist except she does not have the responsibility to do testing and after receiving her licensing she does not need to be supervised, unlike psychologists with their masters who must still have supervision. She gave me some helpful advice in that she recommended I get a masters in a social work, specifically mental health, that way I could still do social services stuff but I could also do more clinical/therapy work if I liked. She said the main reason she went into social work was because of her desire to help people. So it looks like so far I'm on the right track because that's definitley what I want to do.

In other news, I'm still a little sick with a cold, but I'm feeling a lot better than last week and I've actually gotten my voice back. I hope all is well with all of you. Until next time!