Developing Jail Mental Health Services

Developing Jail Mental Health Services
Author: Henry J. Steadman
Publisher:
Total Pages: 166
Release: 1986
Genre: Government publications
ISBN:

This document presents findings from a study conducted to examine the relationships between jails which were represented at the 1978 Special National Workshop on Mental Health Services in Local Jails and the various components of their local mental health systems. Chapter I explains the origins and scope of the study, describes the sample of 33 jails located in 26 states and methods of data collection, and provides an overview of monograph goals. Chapter II presents a distillation and review of current standards for jail mental health services as promulgated by different professional associations. Chapter III describes mental health services that were available in study sites at the time of initial field work. Four distinctive approaches to service delivery are identified and capsule profiles of each type are included. Chapter IV analyzes responses to survey questions dealing with the perceived effectiveness of various organizational arrangements for providing inmate mental health services on study sites. Chapter V focuses on the frequency and scope of staff conflict among mental health and correctional personnel in study sites. Chapter VI addresses subsequent developments and changes made at study sites in the 12 to 18 months following initial site visits. Chapter VII presents a summary and conclusions concerning study findings and their implications for mental health program planning for local jails. Lists of references, cases cited, and participating sites are included.

Health and Incarceration

Health and Incarceration
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 67
Release: 2013-08-08
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0309287715

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.

The Effects of Incarceration and Reentry on Community Health and Well-Being

The Effects of Incarceration and Reentry on Community Health and Well-Being
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 89
Release: 2020-04-17
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309493668

The high rate of incarceration in the United States contributes significantly to the nation's health inequities, extending beyond those who are imprisoned to families, communities, and the entire society. Since the 1970s, there has been a seven-fold increase in incarceration. This increase and the effects of the post-incarceration reentry disproportionately affect low-income families and communities of color. It is critical to examine the criminal justice system through a new lens and explore opportunities for meaningful improvements that will promote health equity in the United States. The National Academies convened a workshop on June 6, 2018 to investigate the connection between incarceration and health inequities to better understand the distributive impact of incarceration on low-income families and communities of color. Topics of discussion focused on the experience of incarceration and reentry, mass incarceration as a public health issue, women's health in jails and prisons, the effects of reentry on the individual and the community, and promising practices and models for reentry. The programs and models that are described in this publication are all Philadelphia-based because Philadelphia has one of the highest rates of incarceration of any major American city. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions of the workshop.

Psychiatric Services in Jails and Prisons

Psychiatric Services in Jails and Prisons
Author: American Psychiatric Association. Task Force to Revise the APA Guidelines on Psychiatric Services in Jails and Prisons
Publisher: American Psychiatric Publishing
Total Pages: 106
Release: 2000
Genre: Medical
ISBN:

For the past decade, the first edition of this unique book has lighted the way for those seeking to navigate the perilous shoals of providing mental health services in jails and prisons. These guidelines have been used and cited extensively in many contexts: educational, planning, and legal. They also have been used by surveyors and monitors of correctional facilities. Since the publication of the first edition, American jails and prisons have seen many changes, including considerable litigation, the development of consumer groups, and the creation of some exemplary programs. However, there has also been a dramatic increase in the population of U.S. jails and prisons. In September 1989, when the first edition of these guidelines was published, our nation's jails and prisons held an estimated 1.2 million men and women. This number is now 1.8 million. Many studies have consistently demonstrated that about 20% of these inmates have serious mental illnesses, and as many as 5% are actively psychotic. With upward of 700,000 men and women entering the U.S criminal justice system each year with active symptoms of serious mental disorders, with 75% of these people having co-occurring substance abuse disorders, and with these persons likely to stay incarcerated four or five times longer than similarly charged people without mental disorders, what are our duties and responsibilities? How do we live up to our personal moral principles, our professional ethics, and our public service obligations in the face of these overwhelming numbers? This is the question to which this book is addressed. This book is intended both to prod to action and to provide comprehensive guidance on how to fulfill these responsibilities to ourselves, our profession, and these badly underserved patients. We have the technologies for treatment and the knowledge and the skills, yet limited resources and public and professional resistance often impede appropriate response. We believe that these guidelines can help overcome many of these sources of resistance through informed action. More active involvement of our profession, as described in these guidelines, is needed, is possible, and will make a difference.

I Refuse for the Devil to Take My Soul

I Refuse for the Devil to Take My Soul
Author: Lili Kobielski
Publisher: powerHouse Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018-12-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9781576878880

This series of photographic portraits and interviews with Cook County Jail inmates as well as jail social workers and psychologists provides a glimpse of life with mental illness behind bars. In late 2015, Lili Kobielski began taking portraits of inmates at the Cook County Jail in Chicago. Working in collaboration with Narratively and the Vera Institute of Justice with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's Safety and Justice Challenge, she began documenting the prevalence of mental illness among inmates at Cook County Jail in an effort to humanize the reality of mass incarceration in this country, often of its most vulnerable citizens. The Cook County Department of Corrections is one of the largest single-site pre-detention facilities in the world, with an average daily population hovering around eight thousand inmates. It is estimated that 35 percent of this population is mentally ill. According to a May 2015 report by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Illinois cut $113.7 million in funding for mental health services between 2009 and 2012. As a result, two state-operated inpatient facilities and six City of Chicago mental health clinics have shut down since 2009. Emergency room visits for patients having a psychiatric crisis increased by 19 percent from 2009 to 2012, and a 2013 report by Thresholds found that the increase in ER visits and hospitalizations resulting from the budget cuts cost Illinois $131 million-almost $18 million more than the original "savings." In addition, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner's refusal to pass a budget for more than two years has caused more than eighty thousand people in Illinois to lose access to mental health care. Two-thirds of nonprofit mental health care agencies in Illinois have reduced or eliminated programs, and a third of Chicago's mental health organizations have had to reduce the number of people they serve. The Cook County Sheriff's Office estimates that it costs $143 per day to house a general population inmate. But when taking into account the treatment, medication, and security required to incarcerate a mentally ill person, the daily cost doubles or even triples-yet now more patients than ever are being treated in jail rather than at a mental health facility. Cook County Jail has become one of the largest, if not the largest, mental health care provider in the United States.