ABSTRACT
As state mental hospitals have been closed throughout the United States, an increasing number of mentally ill persons have been incarcerated in adult correctional facilities. One survey described this trend, reporting that from 1988 to 2000 the number of mentally ill persons receiving treatment in state mental hospitals decreased by 56% while the number of mentally ill persons in adult correctional facilities increased by 114.5% (Manderscheid, Gravesande, & Goldstrom, 2004). Correctional systems have responded to this trend by endeavoring to provide psychiatric treatment within the prisons. From 1988 to 2000, the number of prisons providing mental health services increased by 56%, with 1,097 facilities providing mental health services in 2000 (U.S. Department of Justice, 2001). Mental health services included 24-hour mental health care, counseling or therapy, psychotrophic medication management, and testing or assessment. Of particular relevance to the information presented in this chapter, psychotherapy and counseling were provided by 84% of those prisons providing services to mentally ill inmates and testing/assessment was provided in 78.8% (U.S. Department of Justice, 2002). Although information for 2006 was not available at the time this chapter was written, there is no reason to believe that the number of mentally ill inmates or the number of prisons providing services to mentally ill inmates has decreased since 2000 and there is substantial reason to believe that the numbers will continue to increase.
