Evaluating outcomes of psychological support services in minimum security prisons in England: a quasi-experimental retrospective cohort study using propensity score matching and survival analysis

Objectives To test whether individuals identified as having a likely personality disorder and high reoffending risk, who opted in to psychologically informed support in minimum security prisons (Pathways Enhanced Resettlement Service (PERS)), were (a) less likely to return to more restrictive closed prison conditions, and (b) released to the community sooner, compared with matched non-PERS users. Design Quasi-experimental retrospective cohort design using routine PERS and UK Ministry of Justice administrative data, for all clients enrolled on PERS between 1 April 2019 and 30 April 2022. Setting Five minimum security male prisons in England. Participants 258 PERS users matched for ethnicity, age at first offence and sentencing, education, sentence type, personality disorder screening, risk of reoffending scores and historical drug and alcohol use to 358 controls. Intervention PERS. Results PERS users waited longer for community release (HR=0.16, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.71) and had a lower likelihood of return to closed conditions prisons (HR = 0.73, 95% CI 0.53 to 0.99) than matched controls. Conclusions PERS supports individuals to remain in open conditions for longer; however, further evaluation is needed to understand why PERS users waited longer for release, and if this was associated with a more successful release, without return to prison or reoffence.