A research-to-practice text offering a biopsychosocial approach to treating criminal offenders Correctional Mental Health is a broad-based, balanced guide for students who are learning to treat criminal offenders in a correctional mental health practice. Featuring a wide selection of readings, this edited text offers a thorough grounding in theory, current research, professional practice, and clinical experience. It emphasizes a biopsychosocial approach to caring for the estimated 20% of all U.S. prisoners who have a serious mental disorder. Providing a balance between theoretical and practical perspectives throughout, the text also provides readers with a big-picture framework for assessing current correctional mental health and criminal justice issues, offering clear strategies for addressing these challenges.

What do we know about the mental health of inmates? What are the implications of what we know? Nathaniel J. Pallone characterizes opinion on these questions as falling into two broad camps: the "tender-hearted," those who see an overlap between mental illness and criminal behavior, and are treatment-oriented; and the "tough-minded," those who have little confidence in psychiatric categories, do not really accept arguments about diminished responsibility, and who feel the emphasis should be on punishment. Which is closer to the truth? When this book was first published, the incidence of mental disorder among prisoners was nearly four times greater than among comparable groups in the general population in part because prisoners are disproportionately drawn from demographic groups with a high incidence of mental disorder—nonwhite and from lower socioeconomic strata. But other data is equally dismaying: mental retardation is 50 percent higher; alcohol and drug abuse is between five and eight times greater; and neurogenic disorders may be 1,700 times greater. In all categories of mental illness, the incidence among prisoners is far higher than among the general population. Pallone asserts that evidence suggests that the design and implementation of mental health care needs serious reevaluation, particularly in view of Supreme Court decisions mandating mental health care despite obstacles with implementation. Palone saw mental health care as the primary issue for those who manage prisons. Sadly, this remains as true as when this book was first published.

Exploring Criminal Justice: The Essentials provides an extensive overview of the American criminal justice system in a concise and accessible format. This engaging text examines the people and processes that make up the system and how they interact. It also covers the historic context and modern features of the criminal justice system and encourages students to think about how current events in crime affect their everyday lives. Important Notice: The digital edition of this book is missing some of the images or content found in the physical edition.

Describes and examines five psychological systems for classifying adult male prison inmates: Warren's I-level; Megargee's MMPI-Based Criminal Classification System; Hunt's Conceptual Level; Quay's Adult Internal Management System; and the Jesness Inventory Classification System. Also presents psychometric data on the reliability and validity of each system and illustrates different adjustment patterns of prison inmates. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.