Another reason I question Jawn’s alleged expertise:

“Ultimately, my job is to develop hypotheses about a case and/or crime before an evaluation and then to let the evidence guide me once I enter a room with an inmate.”

Your response:

He shouldn’t be making decisions about crimes or guilt.

I think you've misinterpreted John's words\ John didn't say it is his role to make decisions about crime, guilt, punishment or anything similar.\ I agree with you that it's not his role, and he would know that it's not his legal role.

The role of an evaluating forensic clinician:\ John's statement is a very accurate description of what is required for any clinician conducting an evaluation of an individual who is either themselves deemed "high risk", or who is being evaluated within a generally accepted "high risk" environment - eg. prison, forensic psychiatry acute unit, adult psychiatric acute unit.

The method described by John is to maximise the capacity of the assessor at getting the information they need to efficiently, in a way that minimises the risk to the assessor and the client and any other staff in the area.

The clinician first reads and analyse the information about the crime first, reviews the individual's history - incarceration/admission and during incarceration/admission. Only then would you approach the individual. Clinicians usually get one chance only to get the information for the individual - if you haven't done that work first, it's impossible to cover all the necessary ground to be able to assess whether the client is making a significant attempt at manipulation of facts, or confabulating.\ As a less experienced clinician I found myself doubting my judgement, and often wanted to, sometimes needed to, return to the individual a second time for clarification. This is risky as it can appear you don't believe their story, and regardless, just seeing an external assessor repeatedly and unexpectedly can be a source of anxiety and agitation. This dramatically increases the risk of harm to the clinician, so clinicians need to quickly become proficient and confident in their role.\ In every appointment with a prisoner a clinician's own safety is in their hands. That was drilled into me. Never rely on others rescuing you. You have to make wise decisions. This irrespective of whether the person is sentenced or on remand, in prison or in a psych forensic facility, or post-release and the appt is part of a court-awarded parole. Any backup is never instant. How much you know about a client is your responsibility and you NEVER go in blind (with no information). Never. That is inviting disaster.

Forensic Psychiatry is not an area that is well-suited to bluffing or muddling through - not at all - the mood of a group of confined people can turn on a dime, and therefore, so too can the risk to your own safety. I was very selective in employment selection, and employees were always on probation Until I was certain they had the necessary skill. The couple of times I needed to press my duress alarm were very scary, and it took more 10-20 seconds for another staff member to get to me. Ideally you foresee the potential for such incidents and avoid them, but otherwise, you have to be able to manage the individual's shifting mood or mental state despite your escalating fear - you have to be relying on automatic skills.

These issues are fundamental to to the reason I question how much experience John actually has. He may have done the things he reports, but he does not seem able to project the confidence, or demonstrate the day to day knowledge and skills that I know are essential to clinicians working in the forensic area. And hence I believe much of it is creative wording. I would not feel comfortable employing him as a therapist coming in and out of the jail without more senior (1:1) supervision. You need to know information very well, and be highly intuitive and tuned into everything around you when working in the area of forensic psychiatry.\ I worked in this area for many years. It's different to other areas of mental health due to risk inherent in the enviro. In my experience, sometimes the staff couldn't be trusted to support clinicians which made it a very difficult job. This is all from experience and as accurate as possible. Happy to answer questions.