Criminal Code and Risk Assessment

(Originally written on April 2, 2003)

Risk Assessment means that you have hired Dr. Jon Parsons Friel, “forensic examiner in psychology” to determine the suitability of your client(s) for consideration, conditional or otherwise, from the Court, National Parole Board, Immigration Board or some other Quasi Judicial Review Board including Workmen’s Compensation Board, Military Tribunal, Labour Board, Social Service Appeal Board and others.

There are as many types of Risk Assessments as there are people on the planet but there are two themes that flow through all risk assessment for all people which concern malingering and public safety and security.

Medical Discharge

These require a determination of psychological factors which superseded the admission of quilt.

By example: someone who has had 9 Driving While Intoxicated convictions may be suffering from depression and using alcohol as medication. The court needs to understand the psychological implications of this mental health issue against the numerous convictions.

Bail Hearings

The person is in custody and the court requires assurance that the person will not be a danger to our public safety and security.

By example: someone who has committed homicide and claims they are innocent but the crown is unwilling to review for bail. The court requires assurance that there are psychosocial factors that support the notion that the individual will not be a threat to the specific people and the public in general.

Life 25 Judicial Review

The person has been sentenced to life 25 and at the 15 year mark would like to discuss the privilege of parole with the National Parole Board but needs the permission of the jury of his/her peers.

By example: the judge and jury require an understanding of the biopsychosocial factors that lead up to the homicide. Occasionally, there is other data that must be under forensic review such as the court documents and victim impact statements. They also require and understanding of the treatment effects on the person. As well they require an understanding of the probability of why the crime will not happen again.

Sex Offenders – Juvenile

Juveniles male or female who commit sex crimes generally do not go on to commit such crimes as adults.

By example: the risk assessment of juvenile offenders requires a forensic examination which understands child and adolescent development and young adult development and the accompanying sexual development and how this effects treatment and reintegration or in other words the juvenile’s rehabilitation.

Sex Offenders – Adult

Adult sex offenders generally commit certain types of sex crimes such as non weapon sex assault, sex assault with a weapon, and incest.

Be example: besides understanding the criminology and psychology involved in the actual crime there is an even stronger need to assess the penology and its treatment programs and how they can be assessed against the community based reintegration plan for rehabilitation.

Assault Causing Bodily Harm – Juvenile

Juvenile males and females do commit violence against one and another but the motivation is somewhat different than from adults as their world view is not as grand.

By example: Grade nine males and females may fight over the opposite sex or over a negative remark towards a friend or even towards one’s school or it could be a personal insult or perhaps they were over dosed on illicit drugs and alcohol. This type of risk assessment requires an understanding of child and adolescent development along with treatment programs and their individual effect such as anger management or addictions programs.

Homicide

a. Homicide – Juvenile

Homicide in the juvenile population is more rare than homicide in the adult population. Finding people with the real time experience and training with such offenders such as Dr. Jon Parsons Friel is the more difficult issue.

By example: A male or female juvenile who commits matricide, patricide, or fratricide or homicide against an unknown person is very uncommon and hence the forensic examination in psychology is more complex as there are few generalities or specifics that can be inferred about the crime and juvenile and the case takes on the flavour of the “book of the month club” as new and interesting biopsychosocial features emerge about the case.

b. Homicide – Adult

Homicide in the adult population is rare. Generally the statistical view of adult homicide presents as: about 75% of the males killing their girlfriends, or spouses. Of the remaining about 25% about less than 1% are mob hit men, less than1% are paranoid schizophrenics, less than 1% are zealots for a cause such as abortion, less than 1% are females whom kill their spouses and less than 1% are serial sexual killers and less than 1% are serial killers, and less than 1% are child molesters who kill and the others make up uncommon encounters and other disputes where alcohol and drugs are a generally a factor.

Civil Matters

a. Assessment for Civil Matters

Similar to the risk assessments civil matter assessments are as varied as we have people on this planet. There is a common theme found within all civil assessments and that is the notion of malingering. General public safety and security may not be paramount but it is not uncommon for a specific portion of the public to require specific safety and security such as in custody children and adolescents, or people who through not fault of their own find themselves in unfavourable circumstances such as new immigrants or those in government or non government institutions. Civil matters also include personal injury by way of car accidents, falls, and gunshot wounds.

b. Personal Injury

Personal injury common in North America. Broken bones or internal head wounds with their observed behaviours are noticeable to the courts. The other personal injuries are found in the psychosocial aspects of personal injury are not so readily understood by the general public or their lawyers or the courts.

By example: in a car accident there are two adults in the front and two children 10 and 8 in the back. There is a t bone collision on the passenger side. There is broken bone and head trauma to the passenger. Three months later the 10 year old begins to visualize things and have out of body experiences. This may or may not Post traumatic Stress Disorder. But, if the child is not thought part of the traumatic event of living through a car accident and seeing their parent injured they may be forgotten and have adolescent problems and no one knows why.

This type of civil assessment is complex and includes assessing child and adolescent development and the event coupled with making a judgment about their future.

The Engaging Personality of Homicide in Prison

(Originally written on November 9, 2002)

Introduction

There is a need to understand some important psychological concepts about the development of long term offender personalities in prison including life sentence and death row inmates so not to become complacent in our long term interactions with them and their court or personal problems. As complacency with long term offenders is the heuristic for hostage taking and prison escape.

What happens to the Personalities of these people who kill people?

There is no one answer as to what happens to the personalities of people who kill people and enter prison systems in either Canada or the United States of America. In fact there is no one answer. Every case must be reviewed on its own merits. Whether we want to executed the person or leave then in custody for the remainder of their natural lives or consider a conditional release we must ask the question :

What happens to the Personalities of these people who kill people as there is a need to provide services to them while they either await their execution, go through their daily routine of a natural life sentence in custody or if we are contemplating a conditional release sometime in their sentence.

The status quo

For years the traditional approach to people who kill people has been institutionalization. The idea has no other equal to it and we do not have nay other options to it so we have no choice but to understand the notion of people who kill people and whoa re incarcerated for long periods of time and what changes may or may not take place in their personalities. In other words the status quo is institutionalization.

Understanding the Homicide Personality in the Prison System

Social Psychologists tell us all people need to interact with others to develop self concept. The issue for this paper is that these inmates have killed someone and thereby with whom they interact with is limited and monitored by staff to include and some pre screened inmates and pre screened relatives and friends and lawyers. By way of these interactions the prisoners self concept is being effected and generally in a pro social manner.

Personalities ensconced in these roles of natural life sentence, life sentence with the possibility of conditional release and those on death row still have motivation for life. The question is what is the motivation for life: to live until executed or escape or await conditional release in the years to come? Why is this important? Motivation is the corner stone of each individuals growth and development which never stops not even in prison. This is not say that all growth and development is pro social but that people simply by being incarcerated do not just reflect upon themselves and their lives and what they can do to have power and control their lives. So most prisoners continue to grow and develop in terms of self control, confidence, learning and finding social support for their existence.

Developmental psychology reminds people that the socialization process does not stop at the prison door. Without this human developmental process called socialization there would be more mental illness found in this sub culture of people who kill people sometimes referred to in prison slang as the long term offenders, lifers, or walking dead men.

These people who serve long sentences or await execution develop groups and the group dynamic becomes an important tool for the prisoner and the staff in terms of the prisoner leaning insights ( good or bad) about themselves and significant others. The prisoner learns about relationships, self image, and self confidence and responsibility and cooperation and belonging to a community. By these group processes each prisoner moves towards becoming a competent human being within the total prison system.

Staff offer prosocial models of attitudes and behaviours. This may seem innocent but these prisoners will imitate these staff and their prosocial attitudes and behaviours. Through vicarious learning the prisoners learn how to cope with stress , anxiety, paranoia, and persecutory ideation and depression and phobias.

The long term offenders change and take on similarities of the staff through facilitation, identification, imitation and modelling. Interestingly, the staff job descriptions are written such that they are expected to provide to these prisoners counselling, open communication, problem solving and decision making strategies all within the confines of the prisoners world.

Issue

The socialization process, by way of staff job descriptions, interaction with pre selected inmates, family and friends and significant others such as lawyers creates for the status quo ( institution) the problem of change in the personality of the long term prisoner (such as a convicted murder without redemption). This change is generally in the direction of prosocial attitudes and behaviours similar to staff, family, friends and significant others, such as the inmate acts and behaves more like ourselves.

Change Process

The process of change in these prisoners occurs as the daily decision are made between the inmates and the staff. The ongoing daily, consistent and constant, problem-solving and decision making that is completed between the inmate and the staff creates the impetus within the prisoner to cope with their changing self attitudes and emotions and behaviours.

The Real Problem

This process of developing a new self and a new self concept creates a problem for the status quo (Institution). How do we, the staff, other inmates, significant others such as family, friends, lawyers, clergy, and volunteers do not become complacent with the emerging new self of the prisoner and its more pro social personality?

Recall that this issue of complacency is not just for the prisons system it is for significant others such as lawyers and expert witnesses and independent psychologists. As the new prisoner self and their prosocial personalities seem similar to ourselves and thereby we think they think like we do in all respects including the following rules and regulations, wanting the same things in life we do, and sharing our view of the sanctity of life itself. Sadly, this, sometimes, is the case.

The Solution

Remember the notion of motivation being the cornerstone to the development of personality. This suggests that we must be alert to the plain truth that long term prisoners want their freedom.

Freedom in itself becomes a positive reinforcer for a prisoners motivation to change even those on death row. So such inmates present to staff, and significant others including lawyers the way they think others want them to be (act and think) and hence we must not become complacent to this.

Questions

1. Why is the some offenders present as outrageous and others present as more like ourselves?

Answer : Inmates in general learn eventually from staff how to present themselves to get things they want in the more serious cases such people serving long terms of incarceration what they want is freedom.

2. Seven prisoners escaped from a maximum security prison recently, how could such a thing happen?

Answer : These inmates understood how to be familiar to staff. They took advantage of this and set up an escape plan which should have been detected. However, the staff felt safe and secure with these people as they were so much like themselves and forgot the notion of diligence when on duty.

3. How is it that a lawyer could help prisoner escape?

Answer : There is the notion of attraction between two people. The problem is that the prisoner is motivated to freedom. The lawyer is motivated by the idea that seems genuine and caring and sharing like themselves. The lawyer then forgets the notion of due diligence and complacency ( I am talking to a fellow in a prison for murder and why am I liking him more than I should? Perhaps I had better talk to someone about this).

Adolescence, Athletics and Psychology

(Originally written on June 6, 2006)

The next most important people out side of family and his or her coach for an athlete between 15 and 21 is their academic counselor.

The tasks of the Academic Counselor are found in the areas of:

1. Recruitment for the team – no sense having players who cannot meet the academic requirements of the league.

2. Psychological testing: is a good way to determine the academic potential of the player.

3. Orientation; some needs to explain in detail what it is life to be an academic student and player at the same time in that league.

4. Monitoring academics: once recruited and orientated then begins helping the athlete attain the goal of graduation.

5. Remediation: assists in securing tutors, courses and academic placement.

The role of Confident has been left mostly up to others who know the player.

But, the next important person to the player once he or she has made the big team after coaches, family and friends is a confident. In the past the confident could be most any one close to the player.

However the Danton case (St. Louis Blues player now in custody in the USA serving 7 years) suggest there is a strong role for psychologists to play in adolescent player development by taking on the role of confident to the player.

The Confident role to the adolescent player has now been expanded probably due to the entertainment nature of sport and subsequent monies earned by everyone. Now the confident role includes issues, concerns and problems generally studied by professions such as psychologists.

Some complex adolescent issues, concerns and problems revolve about

• Coping with success
• Identity conflict
• Social isolation
• Use and abuse of intoxicants
• Stress and burnout
• Athletic performance
• Vocation choice
• Transition to better teams and leagues
• Living away from home
• Self discipline
• Coping with new social groups
• Interpersonal relationships

Our Opinion

Adolescent athletes are vulnerable to loss of a good education and a good vocation when they leave home early to play sports. This not to say they should not take life opportunities as they arise. However, as their life consequences are great upon leaving home so early (for example, 15 to 18 years of age) it behooves us as their adult caregivers to provide the best psychological environment to grow and develop as players and citizens. To this end we think we need academic counselors and psychologists involved at all levels of minor sport after the age of 15.

Pressing Issues, Professional Athletes and Psychology

(Originally written on June 6, 2006)

The most pressing issues are what most working people require

• Time Management
• Stress
• Burnout
• Fear of Failure
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Self-confidence
• Self worth
• Transition to civilian life
• Financial matters
• Self-development outside of sports

Psychology and the married professional athlete

(Originally written on June 6, 2006)

When you are 16 and dating and partying and playing sports life is good. Life may be much better at 16 is if you have skill, ability and some sixth sense for the activity you are playing.

Then you actually make it to the next level. You now are a celebrity and athlete and the media and public begins to own you if you let them. You heed the advice to exercise regularly, eat right, sleep right and date cautiously and save your money for tomorrow.

Next you get married. You keep doing the same things but now you have the opportunity to have children. Then you have children. Now you have more to think about than you and the team.

Maintaining relationships in the entertainment world of sport is difficult. But, maintaining relationships in the average Joe/Jane work world of dad/mom being away from home 30 days at a time is also difficult.

Trust. You cannot leave this word alone in your significant relationships. Even away for long periods of time there needs to be a level of trust between you and your spouse and children that when home you are home they become important. They family trusts that when home you will care and share thoughts, feelings, good times and bad times with them.

This sounds easy but it is not when married professional athletes live single and then live married in an on and off world of high emotion at work, in the media and then at home. One can argue that the same is true for married people who work away from home in the Tar Sands of Alberta.

Our Opinion

Trust is the overriding issue for everyone who is married in any job whether a 9 to 5 job or an irregular job such as an athlete. When the trust breaks down between the athlete and his or her family then other issues, concerns and problems arise around the family.

Adult Psychology, Players and Coaches

(Originally written on June 6, 2006)

Introduction

People seem to think there is some type of deep difference between an athlete and a regular average Joe/Jane.

Sadly, there is little if any.

We are all human beings and we are all affected one way or another by our environments, upbringing and life tasks and life experiences and hopes and joys and sorrows.

To Illustrate -Your team is losing

The 1976 Tampa bay Buccaneers were 0 and 14 in the win/loss record. Reporters asked John McKay what he thought of his team’s execution: I quote – “ I am in favor of it ” (Denver Post, 1976).

The clichés for losing are interesting:

Football: “ the player expectations were to high ”

Hockey: “ the player is holding his stick to tight ”

These are nice ways to say that there are emotional or psychological issues that play a role in sport (winning and/or losing).

Players

Players are like the rest of us average Joes/Janes: self protective and sensitive people who get angry, depressed, frustrated, and perhaps even have jealousy of the marquee player on their team or the winning team.

Players are like us average Joes/Janes in that they are afraid to make mistakes.

And, someday just do not feel like playing the game.

Players, just like you and I, use the same or similar techniques to protect their Minds such as denial, blame, rage and avoidance and sometimes they self medicate their issues, concerns or problems with alcohol and drugs.

Coaches

Sam Polack of the Montreal Canadiens said sometime in the 1950’s and 1960’s “ if you can watch 50 guys skate around a rink and you can pick out the hockey players you can be a coach”. Coaches of today need to do a lot more than that.

Coaches are bred apart from the rest of society. They live and die with the team. They need assistant coaches who are prepared, as they are, to sacrifice their personal lives for the good of the team. Significant others are just as important as your assistant coaches. Your family and friends need to understand long days and extended time from home and missed special events, all for the good of the team. These are highly unusual expectations. Or are they? Many men work out of town and leave their families.

What is different about coaches is that need to build a team to execute commands especially in the arena of today’s entertainment of keep the fans happy, the owners happy and the players happy.

The biggest difference between you and I and the coaches is the media attention on the coaches. Other professions outside of politics do not have the same degree of attention on your job description and job performance on a daily basis as a coach.

Coaches need to learn the same things you and I need to learn about stress reduction, anxiety control and anger management to cope with the media attention.

When you are winning life is easy. When your are losing life is very difficult. But so it is in big or small business.

So, it is the media attention that makes the biggest variance between us mere mortals and coaches.

Hence players must trust the coaches to say the right things at the right times to the media about them and their team and teammates.

Our Opinion

Our opinion for your team losing or winning has the same construct: Trust. Prior to about 16 years of age sport is fun and exciting and generally individual physical attributes out shine team play. One or two players are the “standouts” they score the goals, make the tackles and score the points, make the plays and lead the team and others look up to them to win.

Then, one day the reality is there really is no “I” in team sports and in the individual sports significant others are necessary to support the “I” in individual sports.

In Football the quarterback needs the five interior offensive linemen. In Hockey some one needs to pass you the puck, in Golf you need to talk to your caddy.

Without trust there is little one can do in sports. The team needs to trust its coach, the players need to trust each other and everyone needs to trust everyone.

If your team is losing it means your team has given up. But, if you are losing and your team has not given up then the trust is still there. The trust has to be there whether you are winning or losing: trust to protect your quarterback, trust you will make the pass and trust your caddy knows the course and trust that the coach knows what is best for the team whether you are winning or losing.

The “loveable losers” were the 1962 New York Mets. Casey Stingel said of his Mets “ the only worse thing about his Mets was a Met doubleheader.” To be able to say this and have everyone laugh meant his players trusted him and knew he cared about them as they were trying there best and cared about him.

Conclusion

You just cannot beat trust and what goes with it, the attributes of caring and sharing for each another. Trust is the basis of good families and friends. This is the basis of team sports and individual sports and the start of eventually any and all winning teams.

Available case types

(Originally written on October 31, 2002)

Life 25 Judicial Review

The system allows for a judge and jury to review the clients file after a 15 year period to determine if the person will be granted the privilege (not a right) to discuss conditional release with the National Parole Board. Otherwise, life means life in Canada and the person would not be released any other way. To accomplish this task of Life 25 Judicial review requires, assessment and court testimony. The assessment is exhaustive and hence there needs to be a lead time of about 12 months before court to do the task justice. Success is understood by way of the client being able to either

• talk to the National Parole Board about conditional release or not and
• if the client is able to receive “ a day reduction in time from his life 25 sentence” which will move forward their timeframe of when they can talk with the National Parole Board about conditional release.

Life 25 Cases:

• Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
• Calgary, Alberta

Sex Offenders

There are many types of sex offenders and hence there are many ways to look at litigation and mitigation. The key elements are assessment and court testimony. The issue of degree of harm to the victim and whether or not the client will reoffend are just two of the many questions for such cases. The time requirement for such cases is about 6 months before court. If the client is on bail this can be most useful as therapy can be assessed while the client is in the community.

Sex Offender Cases: Available on request to lawyers.

Adolescent Homicide

Adolescent's who commit homicide are rare and hence there is no template for this type of crime. This lack of base rate is very important as the assessment and court testimony are more focused upon the experience and training rather than the education of the assessor. Friel has spent 14 years as a clinical psychologist at Edmonton Young Offender Centre and one of his main units was the adolescent homicide unit.

Adolescent Homicide Cases: Available on request to lawyers.

Adolescent Sex Offenders

Adolescents, depending on the study, make up about to 50 to 70 percent of all sex crimes committed. Further, fewer than 10 percent of these numbers go on and commit sex crimes as adults. So, adolescent treatment programs need to be part of any assessment to determine if the program is harmful or useful since most adolescent sex offenders do not get treatment and very few carry on the same crimes as adults.

Sex Offender Cases: Available on request.

Adult Homicide Offenders

Homicide is rare in the adult population and as with juveniles and child murderers the base rate is also small and hence all cases must be treated from the individual position. The important thing to recall in all homicides is that nothing is committed without reason even in the most bizarre of circumstances such as multiple murders. Finding the reason for the murder is difficult but not impossible and does require an exhaustive assessment. Treatment is a major issue and is generally forgotten once these people are sentenced due to the length of sentence. But, a good treatment plan at sentencing will assist in the next phase and that is Correctional Service of Canada placement and National Parole Board Review.

Adult Homicide cases: Available on request.

Celebrity Cases

These cases garner much media attention. The most recent one we did was Thatcher. We were asked to assess him for reduced security which he did receive.

Celebrity Cases: Are not generally available upon request. Only under special circumstances such as another celebrity case for my office.

Denial Cases

It has been shown that about 10 percent of serving inmates are not guilty. They have been convicted and all appeals failed. These cases sue to be considered the "lost cause". However, the National Parole Board will now review these cases. I have a favourable decision from the National Parole Board on such as case – sex offender.

Denial Case: Are not generally available upon request. Only under special circumstances such as another denial case for my office.