A Viable Future for Correctional Mental Health Care

2012 ◽  
pp. 303-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert K. Ax
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Correctional Mental Health

Systems monitoring and quality improvement

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey L. Metzner
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Health Care System ◽  
Class Action ◽  
Mental Health Care System ◽  
Monitoring Process ◽  
Consent Decrees ◽  
Correctional Mental Health

Class action litigation that includes a focus on constitutionally inadequate correctional mental health care systems has been a major and effective force in jail and prison reform during the past four decades. Benefits to correctional mental health systems resulting from such litigation have included increased resources needed to implement basic policies and procedures that are necessary for a constitutionally adequate system. Following the passage of the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995, newly initiated consent decrees related to class action litigation involving correctional mental health services significantly decreased. The reduction in litigation related to this act followed from limiting the discretion of judges in approving such decrees that were previously allowed. Private settlement agreements and/or memoranda of agreement or their equivalents (the “Agreement”) have been substituted for the consent decree process. Although the judicial enforcement specific to implementation of these Agreements is weak, the monitoring process of such Agreements is very similar to those previously used with consent decrees. This chapter will summarize the monitoring process frequently involved in an Agreement resulting from a class action lawsuit specific to a correctional mental health care system using a single prison mental health system as an illustrative example. Emphasis will be placed on the importance of developing a quality improvement process that should ultimately eliminate the need for a monitor external to the mental health care system.

Formative case law and litigation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamedu F. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Treatment ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Case Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
Class Action ◽  
Health Treatment ◽  
Correctional Mental Health

The presence of comprehensive correctional mental health treatment programs and services in any given jail or prison is often due to successful class action litigation. This chapter reviews the legal and constitutional background for correctional mental health care in the United States and addresses many of the critical ways these courts impact policy and care delivery on a daily basis. Several court decisions have shaped modern correctional mental health care delivery. Officials are obligated under the Eighth Amendment to provide convicted prisoners with adequate medical care, which extends to mental health treatment. Pre-trial detainees also have a right to adequate physical and mental health care under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution). Since the Supreme Court proclaimed that inmates have a constitutional right to adequate health care, much has been written about the controlling decisions, their implications and applications by courts, and their implementation in correctional systems. There are, however, discrete issues related to mental health care in corrections that patients and providers in prisons and jails contend with daily that may not yet be resolved as matters of constitutional law. Case law and litigation are driving innovation in standards of care and enhancing the quality of correctional mental health. These reforms are gaining acceptance as preferred and expected standards of correctional mental health care in jails and prisons, and may reflect the present day ‘evolving standard of decency,’ becoming touchstones of constitutionally adequate care across systems.

Formative case law and litigation

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamedu F. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Treatment ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Case Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
Class Action ◽  
Health Treatment ◽  
Correctional Mental Health

The presence of comprehensive correctional mental health treatment programs and services in any given jail or prison is often due to successful class action litigation. This chapter reviews the legal and constitutional background for correctional mental health care in the United States and addresses many of the critical ways these courts impact policy and care delivery on a daily basis. Several court decisions have shaped modern correctional mental health care delivery. Officials are obligated under the Eighth Amendment to provide convicted prisoners with adequate medical care, which extends to mental health treatment. Pre-trial detainees also have a right to adequate physical and mental health care under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution). Since the Supreme Court proclaimed that inmates have a constitutional right to adequate health care, much has been written about the controlling decisions, their implications and applications by courts, and their implementation in correctional systems. There are, however, discrete issues related to mental health care in corrections that patients and providers in prisons and jails contend with daily that may not yet be resolved as matters of constitutional law. Case law and litigation are driving innovation in standards of care and enhancing the quality of correctional mental health. These reforms are gaining acceptance as preferred and expected standards of correctional mental health care in jails and prisons, and may reflect the present day ‘evolving standard of decency,’ becoming touchstones of constitutionally adequate care across systems.

Model Programs and National Trends in Correctional Mental Health Care

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Perlmutter ◽  
Kristie Scheu ◽  
Jason Davis ◽  
Noelle Wilson ◽  
Agnesa Papazyan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Correctional Mental Health ◽  
National Trends ◽  
Model Programs

Correctional mental health in the USA

2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry A. Dlugacz
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Correctional Mental Health ◽  
Corrections Population

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss five domains impacted by the transformation of correctional mental health care in the USA: public health, public safety, legal obligations, fiscal responsibility and ethical standards, as well as critical issues such as administrative segregation, suicide prevention and reentry planning. Design/methodology/approach – In the last four decades, the USA has seen a sizable growth in its criminal justice system and corrections population. It has also seen reductions in civil and community-based mental health care. Persons with mental disabilities have come to represent a highly disproportional segment of the corrections population. The paper discusses the implications and underlying causes of these developments as well as recent responses to them. Findings – This set of circumstances is starting to change the mission of correctional health services from crisis intervention and suicide prevention to include preparation for the inmate's almost inevitable return to the community. Originality/value – Such changes have led to further developments in correctional mental health care, in particular, policy designed to treat mental illness, reduce its destructive outcomes such as suicide, and facilitate successful reentry into the community in attempts to reduce recidivism and improve clinical outcomes. Mental health care professionals working within corrections have likewise faced ethical challenges in effectuating treatment.

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