The social climate in settings such as forensic psychiatric hospitalsand prisons is crucial to their success. The Essen Climate EvaluationSchema (EssenCES) described here is a short, well-validated questionnairethat measures three essential facets of an institution's socialatmosphere. An overview of the EssenCES is followed by detailedadvice on how to administer and score it and how to interpret findings,as well as reference norms from various countries and types of institutions.The EssenCES "manual and more" is thus a highly useful toolfor researchers, clinicians, and service managers working in forensicsettings.