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Article: Mental health in corrections: the continuing dilemma.(Commentary)
- Article from:
- Corrections Today
- Article date:
- February 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 American Correctional Association, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Mental health programs and correctional facilities have never been a good fit. Mental health patients come to the attention of legal authorities by engaging in illness-driven, aberrant or even bizarre law-breaking behavior--not a good match for an institution that is run by rules and holds people accountable for their actions. Mental health staff are, by both training and professional necessity, required to look deeper into specific, individual issues and problems. They must be flexible and tolerant in their responses, and they think best in egalitarian terms of common human experience. None of these are a good match for the anonymous, quasi-military, hierarchical ...