Safety Issues

This topic outlines the safety issues probation officers should be aware of when interviewing offenders for pre-sentence reports. Safety questions are found in the short and full assessment booklets and are available as a questionnaire.

The following issues will be addressed:

assessing safety
risk of harm
suicide/self-harm, and
mental illness.

Assessing safety

Assessing safety means identifying the:

possibility of suicide, or self-harm
risk of harm to others, and
risk of harm from others.

Look for safety factors

Before interviewing the offender, assess the court documents to look for safety factors, such as evidence of:

serious violent offending
previous suicide attempts
deliberate self-harm
psychiatric treatment
hospital admission for psychiatric disorder, or
intellectual disability.

Specialist safety assessments

After interviewing the offender consider if it is necessary to refer the offender for a specialist safety assessment.

Consult with your service manager if any of the information obtained from the interview or the functioning and safety screening questions highlights the need for referral for a:

psychological assessment, or
forensic psychiatric services assessment.

Once the offender's safety is addressed, there may be a need to refer them to other types of specialist assessments.

Referrals can also be made to community support agencies such as mental health teams, violence prevention and drug and alcohol services if the issues do not warrant specialist safety assessments.

Risk of harm

If the probation officer becomes aware that the offender and/or their dependents are at risk of harm from others action must be taken.

If the offender is interviewed at court and subsequently taken into or kept in custody, any safety concerns must be immediately brought to the attention of the receiving office at the prison. For more information go to, Volume 4, Part I, Management of Risk.

When an offender is identified to be at risk of abuse

If the offender has been identified as being at risk of physical, sexual and/or psychological abuse, the probation officer should offer the offender contact details and/or information for appropriate support or intervention. e.g.:

the police
victim support, court victim advisor
women's refuge
protection orders
relationship programmes, or
other avenues for community support.

When an offender's dependents are at risk of abuse

If the probation officer identifies a child to be at risk of physical, sexual and/or psychological abuse, a referral to Child, Youth and Family (CYF) must be considered. For more information, go to Volume 4, Part I, Chapter 7, Child Abuse.

Suicide/self-harm

If suicide risk or self-harm was not identified by documents or responses to screening interview questions, a referral for a specialist safety assessment can still be made. The criteria for making this decision are detailed below. For more information, go to Volume 4, Part I, Chapter 2, Safety Awareness.

Criteria for a suicide/self-harm safety referral

Make a referral for a specialist safety assessment if the offender meets criterion 1 and any other of the following criteria:

1.	The offender's statements to a notable degree included negative evaluations of themselves, others, or of life in general ("I'm hopeless", "Others don't care about me", "Nothing ever works out for me", "What's the point of trying to do anything").
2.	The offender appeared notably sad or distressed (crying and shaking).
3.	The offender's speech appeared notably slow or flat.
4.	The offender appeared notably agitated (wringing hands, inability to sit still, pacing, pulling or rubbing skin, clothing or other objects).
5.	The offender's energy levels appeared notably low (looking and acting tired, slow body movements).
6.	The offender's appearance suggested a notable degree of neglect of their personal hygiene and dress.
7.	The offender's thinking appeared notably slow.
8.	The offender appeared unable to maintain concentration and attention to a notable degree.
9.	The offender provided information that suggested that they had recently taken steps to settle their affairs (closed bank accounts).
10.	The offender's physical appearance suggested evidence of a recent or past suicide or self-harm attempt (bandaged wrists).
11.	The offender mentions suicidal intentions, plans or thoughts.

Suicide/self-harm explanation

The criteria relate to notable aspects of how offenders presented themselves at the interview. There are two aspects of a presentation that can be considered notable.

The first relates to behaviour that appears out of character compared with that generally encountered in a pre-sentence situation.

Example: Given the circumstances it would be expected that some offenders might feel sad or distressed. This presentation would only be notable if the extent to which the offender was sad or distressed exceeded the typical range of such behaviour in a pre-sentence situation.

The second relates to behaviour that appears out of character given the other information available about the offender.

Example: If other sources of information suggested that an offender was normally well-groomed it would be notable if they presented at interview as very untidily groomed.

Mental illness

If mental illness was not indicated by documents or responses to screening interview questions, a referral for a specialist safety assessment can be made if the offender meets certain criteria. The criteria for making a referral are outlined below.

Criteria for mental illness safety referral

Make a referral for a specialist safety assessment if the offender meets one or more of the following criteria:

1.	The offender appeared to be hallucinating (e.g. seemed to see something you could not see, seeming to hear something you could not hear).
2.	The offender's statements included beliefs that appeared delusional (e.g. seemed to accept without question the authenticity of beliefs he/she expressed that were bizarre or highly improbable).
3.	The offender's statements appeared grossly disorganised (e.g. tangential connections between topics of speech and/or incoherent statements).
4.	The offender's behaviour appeared bizarre (e.g. standing on a chair for no apparent reason while being interviewed) or disorganised (e.g. unpredictable agitation).
5.	The offender appeared to be under-responding to the environment to a notable degree.
6.	The offender's emotional state appeared flat to a notable degree.
7.	The offender appeared notably talkative and/or their speech was notably rapid (suggesting racing thoughts).
8.	The offender's mood appeared notably elevated.

Note: Some of these behaviours may also be the result of alcohol or other drug intake.

Mental illness explanation

In respect to the above criteria, the term notable refers to aspects of the offender's presentation that exceeds that of the normal range of behaviour typically encountered in another person.

Hallucinations refer to the experience of seeing and/or hearing things that are not present (without questioning their authenticity).
Delusions refer to the possession of beliefs that are clearly untrue, while their authenticity is not questioned. Delusions can be:
- bizarre (e.g. the neighbour's dog is controlling my mind with radio signals), or
- non-bizarre but highly improbable (e.g. the postman is diverting my mail to my mother without my permission).

Particular care should be taken to not confuse statements offenders may usually make (e.g. the police harassed me and set me up) with beliefs that are more clearly of delusional proportions.

Custody issues

If the interview took place in custody - either in a prison or court cells:

alert the prison, forensic nurse, court staff and/or police of any concerns with regards to the possibility of self-harm or harm to others.
if concerns for the offender's mental health or risk of self-harm were identified arrange for referral to an appropriate psychiatric service.
note any safety concerns in the 'alerts' section in the offender header of IOMS.

Previous Next Show Contents

| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |