Reentry planning for offenders with mental disorders.

Clinicians who work on the frontlines of correctional mental health know that the challenges are only increasing. Not only is the proportion of inmates with mental disorders growing at a rate that exceeds that of the correctional population as a whole, but this group is expanding at both ends of the aging continuum, so that increasing numbers of both geriatric and juvenile offenders require assessment and treatment. Changing patient demographics and evolving treatment modalities make it essential that psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, and other professionals who serve the prison population have access to the most practical, up-to-date, and comprehensive resource. Handbook of Correctional Mental Health, now in an expanded, second edition, is that resource. This book addresses key concepts to ensure that the reader meets the current standard of care for inmates through all phases of the criminal justice system. In 20 state-of-the-art chapters, nationally recognized providers and correctional mental health experts address the most pressing issues facing clinicians. Unique to this edition, the Handbook: Summarizes the literature regarding unique populations observed in a correctional environment, thereby assisting the provider in tailoring treatment to various target populations. Provides a clear overview of both malpractice law and the concept of "deliberate indifference" that aids the reader in understanding the legal requirements for providing care and minimizing risks of lawsuits. Educates clinicians on how to differentiate feigned versus legitimate mental health symptoms, and how to understand and interpret inmate motivations for psychiatric malingering. Discusses important administrative aspects regarding documentation issues, quality assurance, and practicing under a consent decree. Provides useful tables throughout the text with key summary points emphasized. Includes five new, clinically focused chapters on the assessment and treatment of inmates with substance use disorders, geriatric offenders, juvenile offenders, inmates with self-injurious behaviors, offenders who have experienced various traumas during their lives, and inmates housed on maximum security units and death row. Other titles in the field are either out-of-date or limited in scope. By contrast, this new edition of Handbook of Correctional Mental Health includes everything mental health professionals need to provide the highest standard of care to this growing -- and complex -- patient population.

Over the past four decades, the rate of incarceration in the United States has skyrocketed to unprecedented heights, both historically and in comparison to that of other developed nations. At far higher rates than the general population, those in or entering U.S. jails and prisons are prone to many health problems. This is a problem not just for them, but also for the communities from which they come and to which, in nearly all cases, they will return. Health and Incarceration is the summary of a workshop jointly sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences(NAS) Committee on Law and Justice and the Institute of Medicine(IOM) Board on Health and Select Populations in December 2012. Academics, practitioners, state officials, and nongovernmental organization representatives from the fields of healthcare, prisoner advocacy, and corrections reviewed what is known about these health issues and what appear to be the best opportunities to improve healthcare for those who are now or will be incarcerated. The workshop was designed as a roundtable with brief presentations from 16 experts and time for group discussion. Health and Incarceration reviews what is known about the health of incarcerated individuals, the healthcare they receive, and effects of incarceration on public health. This report identifies opportunities to improve healthcare for these populations and provides a platform for visions of how the world of incarceration health can be a better place.

Today’s high recidivism rates, combined with the rising costs of jails and prisons, are increasingly seen as problems that must be addressed on both moral and financial grounds. Research on prison and jail reentry typically focuses on barriers stemming from employment, housing, mental health, and substance abuse issues from the perspective of offenders returning to urban areas. This book explores the largely neglected topic of the specific challenges inmates experience when leaving jail and returning to rural areas. Rural Jail Reentry provides a thorough background and theoretical framework on reentry issues and rural crime patterns, and identifies perceptions of the most significant challenges to jail reentry in rural areas. Utilizing three robust samples—current inmates, probation and parole officers, and treatment staff—Ward examines what each group considers to be the most impactful factors surrounding rural jail re-entry. A springboard for future research and policy discussions, this book will be of interest to international researchers and practitioners interested in the topic of rural reentry, as well as graduate and upper-level undergraduate students concerned with contemporary issues in corrections, community-based corrections, critical issues in criminal justice, and criminal justice policy.

After decades of stability from the 1920s to the early 1970s, the rate of imprisonment in the United States has increased fivefold during the last four decades. The U.S. penal population of 2.2 million adults is by far the largest in the world. Just under one-quarter of the world's prisoners are held in American prisons. The U.S. rate of incarceration, with nearly 1 out of every 100 adults in prison or jail, is 5 to 10 times higher than the rates in Western Europe and other democracies. The U.S. prison population is largely drawn from the most disadvantaged part of the nation's population: mostly men under age 40, disproportionately minority, and poorly educated. Prisoners often carry additional deficits of drug and alcohol addictions, mental and physical illnesses, and lack of work preparation or experience. The growth of incarceration in the United States during four decades has prompted numerous critiques and a growing body of scientific knowledge about what prompted the rise and what its consequences have been for the people imprisoned, their families and communities, and for U.S. society. The Growth of Incarceration in the United States examines research and analysis of the dramatic rise of incarceration rates and its affects. This study makes the case that the United States has gone far past the point where the numbers of people in prison can be justified by social benefits and has reached a level where these high rates of incarceration themselves constitute a source of injustice and social harm. The Growth of Incarceration in the United States examines policy changes that created an increasingly punitive political climate and offers specific policy advice in sentencing policy, prison policy, and social policy. The report also identifies important research questions that must be answered to provide a firmer basis for policy. This report is a call for change in the way society views criminals, punishment, and prison. This landmark study assesses the evidence and its implications for public policy to inform an extensive and thoughtful public debate about and reconsideration of policies.

Recent surveys demonstrate a high and possibly increasing prevalence of mental disorders in prisoners. They have an increased risk of suffering from a mental disorder that transcends countries and diagnoses. Ethical dilemmas in prison psychiatry arise from resource allocation and include issues of patient choice and autonomy in an inherently coercive environment. Ethical conflicts may arise from the dual role of forensic psychiatrists giving raise to tensions between patient care/protection of the public.This book describes models and ethical issues of psychiatric healthcare in prison in several countries. Relevant issues are: the professional medical role of a psychiatrist and/or psychotherapist working in prison, the involvement of psychiatrists in disciplinary or coercive measures; consent to treatment, the use of coercion in forcing a prisoner to undergo treatment, hunger strike, confidentiality. The book ends with consensus guidelines concerning good practice in Prison Psychiatry.

The first practical, clinical guidebook on correctional mental health care that uses hypothetical case vignettes to illustrate important points, the "Handbook of Correctional Mental Health" is designed to assist mental health professionals in providing effective care to inmates and understanding both the unique living environment and stressors faced by inmates in a variety of correctional settings and the legal context in which they provide that care. Each of 12 fascinating chapters written by 26 recognized experts is clearly organized by overview, clinical case vignette, and key summary points, following the individual from arrest through probation. The "Handbook of Correctional Mental Health" combines basic background information for providers new to the world of corrections with more advanced material for seasoned correctional providers, covering topics such as medication management, malingering, developmentally disabled inmates, female inmates, and the complex legal issues regarding the unique and separate constitutional standard of care within correctional settings. Incorporating various viewpoints on potentially controversial issues and including extensive legal and clinical references that reflect current trends in correctional psychiatry, the "Handbook of Correctional Mental Health" has a broad multidisciplinary scope and will appeal to psychiatrists and psychologists, social workers, nurses, attorneys and judges, and correctional officers and administrators.