ABSTRACT
The number of incarcerated persons in the United States reached an all time high in 1999. The United States Department of Justice indicated that federal, state, and municipal governments incarcerated a total of 2 026 596 individuals by the end of 1999 (Beck 2000). A significant proportion of these incarcerated individuals suffers from major psychiatric disorders or substance abuse, or requires psychiatric intervention. Inadequate mental health services to mentally ill criminal offenders remain an urgent problem despite a long history of psychiatric service to prisoners (Metzner 1997a).
