University of California San Francisco

Amend logo

The Resource Team Model

Resource Teams serve high-needs individuals who engage in high-risk behaviors by providing supportive, rehabilitative, evidence-based approaches that create a pathway to eliminate long-term solitary confinement and reduce the harms of isolation.

Resource Team members meet with a prison resident at WCCW in Washington

An Evidence-Based Alternative to Long-Term Isolation

The Resource Team, adapted from the Norwegian Correctional Service in partnership with Amend, is a staffing and engagement model that relies on trained custody staff to work directly with high-needs incarcerated individuals to help them set and achieve goals that enable them to transition safely to lower-security housing. Grounded in international principles such as normalization, this model emphasizes individualized, humane, and treatment-oriented practices.

The Activation Team is a mobile Resource Team focused on reducing the risk of restrictive housing placement for people who are exhibiting high risk and high need behavior in general population throughout the prison.

TEAM FOCUS

  • The Highest-Risk, Highest-Need Residents

    Resource Teams work with people incarcerated in Restricted Housing — including those with serious mental illness or histories of in-custody violence.

OBJECTIVES

  • Safety, Progression, and Behavior Change

    Using a modified case management approach, the Resource Team sets goals, tracks progress, and supports continuous program improvement.

THE MODEL

  • A Multi-Disciplinary Team

    A Resource Team typically includes four to five custody staff, including a supervisor, and sometimes a psychiatric technician or a peer mentor.

  • Specialized Training

    Team members receive training in the impact of trauma on behavior, serious mental illness, behavior change, motivational interviewing, de-escalation, and non-force-based safety approaches.

  • Close Collaboration

    Success depends on close collaboration among custody staff, healthcare providers, mental health professionals, peer mentors, and facility leadership.

KEY PILLARS

  • Individualized Risk Assessment

    Professional and respectful engagement empowers team members to understand resident-specific risk and protective factors.

  • Goal-Oriented Activities

    Planned activities that may appear simple, such as playing games, working on resumés, or playing an instrument, are intentional tools for building trust, reducing tension, and supporting behavior change.

  • Reduced Isolation

    By increasing structured, meaningful out-of-cell time and engagement with staff and peer mentors, the Resource Team helps people build skills and transition safely to lower-security housing.

Research shows that Restricted Housing...

Increasing Skills, Safety, and Quality of Life for Correctional Staff

Staff working on the Resource Team reported significant improvements in their own health and well-being:

Physical Health
Mental Health, Including Mood
Quality of Life
Satisfaction with Personal Relationships

Staff working on the Resource Team also reported their work had a positive impact and felt increased confidence in working with high-risk people with complex needs:

Confident Communicating with High-Risk, High-Needs People
Confident De-escalating Violence without Use of Force
Confident Performing In-the-Moment Risk Assessment
Having a Positive Impact on Others at Work

Amend survey of 62 staff across California, Washington, and Oregon Resource Teams; all showing a statistically significant increase in reports in agreeing or strongly agreeing with these statements.

Changing the Lives of People in Long-Term Isolation

Learn more about how Resource Teams have impacted the experiences of people incarcerated in restricted housing. 

Cell2Cell meeting at SCCC
  • Impact

From Skeptic to Changemaker: A Story of Leadership and Transformation

Peer mentor and Resource Team
  • Impact

Building Trust and Breaking Isolation

Mr. Gomez
  • Impact

Restoring Human Connection After Years of Isolation

1. Restricted housing environments can create a more harmful work environment for prison staff.
Sources: Stressed out in lock down: The impacts of work in extended restrictive housing on prison personnel, Aranda-Hughes V, Mears DP., Justice Quarterly. 2024; Prisons and mental health: Violence, organizational support, and the effects of correctional work., Lerman AE, Harney J, Sadin M., Criminal Justice and Behavior. 2022.
2. Restricted housing has been associated with adverse health and well-being outcomes for incarcerated people, both during incarceration and after release. Sources: Mental health disparities in solitary confinement. Simes JT, Western B, Lee A., Criminology. 2022; Shedding light on “the hole”: A systematic review and meta-analysis on adverse psychological effects and mortality following solitary confinement in correctional settings, Luigi M, Dellazizzo L, Giguère CÉ, Goulet MH, Dumais A., Front Psychiatry. 2020; Association of restrictive housing during incarceration with mortality after release, Brinkley-Rubinstein L, Sivaraman J, Rosen DL, et al., JAMA Network Open. 2019; Solitary confinement placement and post-release mortality risk among formerly incarcerated individuals: a population-based study. Wildeman C, Andersen LH., Lancet Public Health. 2020.
3. Research has generally not found evidence that restricted housing reduces institutional violence and, in some cases, has found associations with increased violence.
Sources: Exploring the effect of exposure to short-term solitary confinement among violent prison inmates, Morris RG., Journal of Quantitative Criminology. 2016; Solitary confinement of inmates associated with relapse into any recidivism including violent crime: A systematic review and meta-analysis, Luigi M, Dellazizzo L, Giguere CE, Goulet MH, Potvin S, Dumais A., Trauma Violence Abuse. 2022.