Automated Telephone Follow-up in the Swedish Prison and Probation Services

Region Skane108 enrolled

Overview

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether automated telephony may be used for daily assessments of paroled offenders, and whether a brief intervention based on these daily assessments may result in a more positive development compared to daily assessments only.

To study whether automated telephony could be used in paroled offenders to perform daily assessment of variables associated with recidivism in crime and to study the effects of a brief intervention based on these assessments during 30 days following probation.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

108

Conditions

Affect Alcohol Consumption Substance Abuse

Interventions

Brief feedbackBEHAVIORAL

A brief feedback was given on the results of the daily assessments, including a recommendation to the paroled offender and a email report was sent to the probation officer.

Daily assessmentsBEHAVIORAL

Daily assessment of stress, mental symptoms, alcohol and substance use during 30 consecutive days after parole.

Eligibility

Sex: ALL

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Convicted criminals subject to parole * Access to a mobile telephone * Assigned parole officer at parole Exclusion Criteria: * No knowledge of spoken Swedish * Additional intervention such as intensive supervision with electronic monitoring, or in-patient care at a health and rehabilitation clinic

Locations (1)

The Swedish Prison and Probation Services, Region South and Region East

Norrköping, Sweden

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Mental symptoms, SCL-8D

Mental Symptoms, assessed with SCL-8D (Fink et al. A Nordic multicentre investigation. Part I: Method and prevalence of psychiatric morbidity. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 1995;92(6):409-418).