The Offender Personality Disorder Pathway

Abstract

Abstract This chapter assesses the reforms undertaken in the name of the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) Pathway, which came to replace the DSPD Programme in 2011. The OPD Pathway suggests that mental health support follows risk in the criminal justice system, as prisoners who are not considered to pose significant management problems or a high risk of serious reoffending are likely to be left out of services that could benefit them. Conversely, the broad definition of personality disorder under the Pathway risks applying a stigmatizing label to individuals who may not meet the clinical criteria. This chapter further presents an account of a new penal subject constructed by the Pathway: a traumatized subject whose offending and challenging behaviour is a re-enactment of past traumas. This subject has the potential to amplify the clash between therapeutic cultures and cultures of control within prisons. However, the OPD Pathway also suggests a tendency to pathologize disruptive or challenging behaviours and to attribute these behaviours to individual failings rather than to structural failings within the prison system. Treatment under the OPD Pathway further tends to place responsibility on the individual for managing both their risk of reoffending and the symptoms of trauma. This suggests that the radical potential of trauma-informed practice is being compromised in favour of prison culture.