The Resolve to Stop the Violence Project: transforming an in-house culture of violence through a jail-based programme

The usual modes of incarceration have not been found to curb violence significantly, even while in custody. A jail-based programme called the Resolve to Stop the Violence Project (RSVP) was created with the hypothesis that immersing men with a history of serious, recent and often multiple violent crimes in an intensive, multi-modal in-house 'culture' would serve as a possible first step to preventing further violence.

Two years of incident reports were reviewed for the programme dorm and a regular dorm, both typically serving an average of 56 male inmates of similar composition, for historic and between-dorm comparisons.

During the year before RSVP began, there were 24 violent incidents serious enough to have constituted felonies had they occurred in the community (roughly three per month) in the 62-bed dorm. During the first month RSVP was in effect there was one such incident; and for the following 12 months, there were none. During that same year, the control dorm that still followed traditional jail practices had 28 violent incidents.

Correctional efforts may improve with the transformation of subcultures into therapeutic communities that facilitate the practice of prosocial skills over attitudes and mores that engender violence.