NCJ Number
146531
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 55 Issue: 7 Dated: (December 1993) Pages: 114,116-119
Date Published
1993
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Seventeen years ago, New York transferred responsibility for prison mental heath care from the Department of Correctional Services to the Office of Mental Health and has produced significant increases in the quality, quantity, and diversity of mental health services.
Abstract
The system uses the basic premise that prisons are communities in which some people have ongoing and emergency needs for mental health services. Therefore, it provides a wide array of services, varying in intensity. Services are individualized, and each person receives the least costly, least intensive service needeed. The system includes a psychiatric center and 11 satellite units. The satellite units provide a range of services to each prison cluster. Services include screening and referral; crisis beds, with an average stay of less than 10 days; long-term residential treatment units called intermediate care programs; outpatient treatment, which usually includes medication and/or psychotherapy; and predischarge planning services for inmates about to be released or paroled. New York is continuing to develop its postrelease services. Current concerns relate to the special housing unit, especially the disciplinary segregation area, and the lack of long-term hospital care for the small number of inmates needing it. Photograph