title: Correctional mental health in the USA.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  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.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
  
  
  RESULTS
  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.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Social Worker and an Attorney, based at Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP, New York, New York, USA; New York Medical College, New York, New York, USA and New York Law School, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Henry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: A Dlugacz
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D008603:Mental Health; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000191:economics / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011330:Prisons / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011634:Public Health; D014481:United States; D014754:Violence / Q000517:prevention & control; D000092864:Suicide Prevention
keywords: Administrative segregation; Correctional mental health care; Criminal justice system; Medical ethics; Mental illness; Public health; Reentry; Suicide