Psychiatric Services in Jails and Prisons or Wages of Crime

Psychiatric Services in Jails and Prisons

Author: American Psychiatric Association

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& rsquo;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& #63; 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& #63;

This is the question to which this book is addressed. This book is intended both to prod to action and to provide comprehensiveguidance 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.

David M. Montani

This book outlines standards of psychiatric services in jails and prisons. It is an update of a book first published in 1989. The authors' purpose is to show how services can be provided morally and ethically to the vast numbers of inmates with mental illness. Considering the conditions inside many correctional facilities, this is a worthy objective. Unfortunately, aside from providing a bare bones outline of certain standards, the practitioner will not find much to help him or her address day-to-day care issues. The authors state that the primary use is for teaching and training mental health professionals; however, they also note that the included guidelines have been used by administrators and in litigation and monitoring. The administrators and litigators will find this book more useful than the practitioners. After a brief overview of issues related to mental health treatment in correctional facilities, this book outlines guidelines for each step of mental healthcare in jails and prisons, e.g. who should perform a screening, who should be able to refer an inmate for a comprehensive examination, what components should be included in discharge planning, etc. Since many of the same issues apply to prisons and to jails, this section gets tedious and repetitious. As guidelines need to be periodically revised to maintain currency and credibility, an update is needed. At the same time, many of the current issues in correctional mental health were issues in 1989; they have only become more salient with changing demographics in jails and prisons. Lawyers needing to reference a document for litigation and administrators wishing to plan services or avoid litigation will find the second editionvaluable and needed.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer: David M. Montani, MD (Rush University Medical Center)
Description: This book outlines standards of psychiatric services in jails and prisons. It is an update of a book first published in 1989.
Purpose: The authors' purpose is to show how services can be provided morally and ethically to the vast numbers of inmates with mental illness. Considering the conditions inside many correctional facilities, this is a worthy objective. Unfortunately, aside from providing a bare bones outline of certain standards, the practitioner will not find much to help him or her address day-to-day care issues.
Audience: The authors state that the primary use is for teaching and training mental health professionals; however, they also note that the included guidelines have been used by administrators and in litigation and monitoring. The administrators and litigators will find this book more useful than the practitioners.
Features: After a brief overview of issues related to mental health treatment in correctional facilities, this book outlines guidelines for each step of mental healthcare in jails and prisons, e.g. who should perform a screening, who should be able to refer an inmate for a comprehensive examination, what components should be included in discharge planning, etc. Since many of the same issues apply to prisons and to jails, this section gets tedious and repetitious.
Assessment: As guidelines need to be periodically revised to maintain currency and credibility, an update is needed. At the same time, many of the current issues in correctional mental health were issues in 1989; they have only become more salient with changing demographics in jails and prisons. Lawyers needing to reference a document for litigation and administrators wishing to plan services or avoid litigation will find the second edition valuable and needed.

Rating

2 Stars from Doody

Books about: Understanding and Interpreting Chinese Economic Reform or The Triple Bottom Line

Wages of Crime: Black Markets, Illegal Finance, and the Underworld Economy

Author: R T Naylor

"Never in history has there been a black market tamed from the supply side. From Prohibition to prostitution, from gambling to recreational drugs, the story is the same. Supplyside controls act to encourage production and increase profits. At best a few intermediaries get knocked out of business. But as long as demand persists, the market is served more or less as before. In the meantime, failure to 'win the war' [against crime] becomes a pretext for increasing police budgets, expanding law enforcement powers, and pouring more money into the voracious maw of the prisonindustrial complex."—from the Introduction

R. T. Naylor specializes in the study of smuggling, black markets, and international financial crime. Wages of Crime takes the reader into the shadowy underworld of modern criminal business—arms trafficking, gold smuggling, money laundering, and terrorist financing. Naylor dissects the schemes by which illegal entrepreneurs disguise their acts, manage their take, and eventually enjoy the loot. The author asserts that much of what police, press, politicians, and the public understand about international crime is based on myth and misrepresentation. A fully revised final chapter covering events since the book's initial publication in early 2002 brings Wages of Crime up to date.

About the Author
R. T. Naylor is Professor of Economics at McGill University and a consultant to tax authorities, law enforcement bodies, and the United Nations. He is the author of many books, including Economic Warfare: Sanctions, Embargo Busting, and Their Human Cost; Hot Money and the Politics of Debt; and Bankers, Bagmen, and Bandits: Business and Politics in the Age of Greed.

Table of Contents:

1	Mafias, myths, and markets	13
2	The insurgent economy : black market operations of guerrilla groups	44
3	Loose cannons : covert commerce and underground finance in the modern arms black market	88
4	Treasure island : offshore havens, bank secrecy, and money laundering	133
5	The underworld of gold	196
6	Washout : follow-the-money methods in crime control policy	247
7	Satanic purses : Osama bin Laden and the numismatic jihad	287