Corrections Counseling - The Mentally Ill Offender

Brought to you by The American Public Safety Training Institute (TAPSTI) www.tapsti.org, this 2 hour session will be reviewing how jails and prisons across this country have become the nation's mental health services providers. This refers to the "criminalization of the mentally ill" due to a growing trend where it is found by local government to be expedient and cost-effective to process those with serious mental disorders through the criminal justice system instead of community-based treatment or psychiatric hospitals. There are at least 300% more mentally ill people in our jails and prisons than in mental health hospitals. When you examine where they are you will find many are in urban jails (Human Rights Watch, 2003). Using Albert Robert's work entitled "Correctional Counseling and Treatment" as the core of this discussion we will examine the mentally ill offender, their treatment, and the prison group counseling most often used.