NCJ Number
192479
Journal
Prison Journal Volume: 81 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2001 Pages: 473-490
Date Published
December 2001
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This article examines life in prison for inmates who completed a residential mental health treatment program.
Abstract
Sixty-one inmates with mental illness who had been treated in a medium security residential mental health program were interviewed and assessed in other prison units after they left the program, 43 in general population units and 18 in special living units. Participants showed a decrease in psychiatric symptoms and expressed appreciation for the program. A minority of participants had adjustment problems that persisted in every prison setting. The article discusses the coping abilities of inmates with mental illness and program implications in relation to differences in individuals and in settings. Because provision of care to persons with mental illness has an ethical as well as a practical dimension, the existence of a group of inmates who adapt poorly to every prison setting raises further questions. There is no way to know whether the program has made every effort to help them cope with their illness and that the system has made every effort to accommodate their disabilities. The article claims it is therefore impossible to discern where to address inherent limits on what can be done with such challenging individuals in an environment not designed to care for them. But the likelihood of inherent limits also raises the question of whether it is wise social policy to send desperately ill people to prison. Tables, note, references