Abstract
We examined the validity of the Referral Decision Scale (RDS), a test designed to screen for mental disorder in jail inmates, in a sample of 790 men admitted to an urban pretrial jail. Our results indicated that, in general, the RDS had excellent reliability and acceptable validity as a screening measure for serious mental disorder in jail settings, despite making a large number of false positive errors relative to both contemporaneous and subsequent assessments of mental disorder. Although the RDS is well suited for use in research, more information is needed before the test is used for clinical purposes. We discuss some potential problems with the use of the RDS in correctional systems.
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Editor's note. Because I was one of the authors of this article, Michael Saks, my predecessor as editor of this journal, kindly agreed to oversee the review process for this submission. The manuscript was subjected to the normal blind peer review process. I want to thank Professor Saks and the anonymous reviewers for their participation in this review.
This research was supported by a grant from the British Columbia Health Research Foundation (grant No. 112-89-2). Thanks to John Surridge, Director, Vancouver Pretrial Services Centre, and to the B.C. Corrections Branch for their cooperation; to P. Randall Kropp, Patrick Bartel, Barbara Chambers, and Adelle Forth for assistance in interviewing; and to Reo Audette, Academic Computing Services, Simon Fraser University, for statistical consultation.
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Hart, S.D., Roesch, R., Corrado, R.R. et al. The referral decision scale. Law Hum Behav 17, 611–623 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01044685
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01044685