Salinas Valley State Prison (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

Salinas Valley State Prison (SVSP) is a high security facility housing male incarcerated residents.  We have multiple mental health missions and opportunities for social workers.  We work with our students to develop a training experience which best fits your career goals.  Our social work students complete some didactic and group supervision hours together with full-time psychology interns at our site and we intentionally incorporate material to encourage each discipline to learn from and about the other.  

Our treatment programs include four outpatient facilities, two Enhanced Outpatient Program (EOP) facilities most similar to day treatment programs, a Restricted Housing Unit (a jail within the prison), a short stay crisis unit, and a long-term inpatient facility.  We also are one of the institutions in the state designated to house developmentally disabled and transgender residents. 

Unique training opportunities for social workers in a prison setting involve:

- Learning to provide time-limited individual and group therapeutic interventions per the trainee's skill level and interest

- Understanding the unique and challenging culture that develops among staff and residents in correctional institutions, alongside the rewards and challenges of public service in general

- Navigating interdisciplinary work with psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, peace officers, education staff, and others, including with the Salinas Valley Resource Team a first-in-the-state team of officers dedicated to work intensively with residents with greater needs

- Providing mental health clinical input to non-clinical staff as required by state law and department policy (e.g., in connection with Rules Violation Reports, during Classification Committees, etc.)  

- Gaining generalist training in evidence-based mental health treatment alongside a team

- Training in the use of a community-standard electronic health record system