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Guidelines for psychiatric services in prisons
Author(s) -
METZNER JEFFREY L.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
criminal behaviour and mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1471-2857
pISSN - 0957-9664
DOI - 10.1002/cbm.1993.3.4.252
Subject(s) - prison , mental health , variety (cybernetics) , psychiatry , medicine , class action , action (physics) , mental health care , psychology , nursing , criminology , state (computer science) , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , computer science
Recent prevalence studies have found that 8–19% of prison inmates have significant psychiatric or functional disabilities. Efforts to establish adequate mental health systems in prisons within the USA were accelerated during the late 1970s as a result of successful class action lawsuits. These efforts have been assisted by the development of standards for correctional health care programmes by a variety of national organisations. This paper describes a framework for establishing an adequate mental health system within a prison. Basic principles for delivery of psychiatric services in prisons, administrative models for such services, guidelines for correctional based psychiatric treatment, and issues unique for correctional mental systems are reviewed.