Screening and assessment for the wide range of risks, needs, and strengths that incoming inmates may present must be carefully prioritized and sequenced to respond to the urgency and applicability of each assessment area to a given inmate. The chart above describes a general framework for the timing of screening and assessment in a range of subject areas, but the exact sequence and timing of a thorough and complete assessment process should be determined by corrections administrators and can vary significantly from state to state. (See chart, "Intake Assessment and Risk/ Needs Determination," above.) Any framework must be flexible enough to account for both individual differences and characteristics prevalent in the population of the jurisdiction in which the framework is employed.

Although the intake procedure should be comprehensive and rely upon validated tools, corrections administrators should be careful to keep the process streamlined and manageable. The number of tools used to assess each person in prison or jail, and the number of assessors who administer them, must be as limited as possible. Requiring that the individual complete too many different instruments can become counterproductive by confusing or frustrating the inmate, causing him or her to stop providing useful information. At the same time, NIC research (as described above in the Research Highlights) has found that classification and risk instruments that assess fewer factors are generally more reliable predictors, so it is unproductive to use a single instrument that attempts to cover every category. ^[1]   Corrections administrators need to balance comprehensiveness and integration with reliability and simplicity, in order to decide which instruments to develop or adopt for use during intake.

An initial screening should be performed immediately upon a person's arrival at the facility. It is especially important for staff to determine whether he or she has any suicidal tendencies or poses a danger to him or herself or others. Screenings for acute mental or physical health conditions and substance abuse disorders, as well as dependent care responsibilities, should also be conducted promptly, as described in Recommendations d through f ("Ensuring the Safety of Staff, Inmates, and Dependents").

Assessment in some areas can be appropriately delayed until later in the incarceration period. The results of the initial screenings might indicate the need for more extensive assessment in the weeks after admission. (See Recommendations g through m, "Informing the Programming Plan," below.) Further, the assessment to determine appropriate housing for an individual after his or her release should be conducted six months to one year prior to release, when that date becomes known. (See Policy Statement 19, Housing, for more on conducting this assessment and applying the results.)

In cases where conducting an assessment in all areas described in this policy statement is not possible, assessments should be keyed to programs or services that are available in the facility or in the community. This process can work both ways: administrators should ensure that people are assessed for participation in available programs, but should also seek to establish programs or service linkages that meet the assessed needs of the inmate population. (See Policy Statement 1, Encouraging Collaboration Among Key Stakeholders, for more on identifying and partnering with service partners and systems administrators in the community.) As further detailed in Recommendation o, below, established partners can also be engaged to shift some assessment responsibilities away from intake staff.