Law Commons^™

Self-Injurious Behaviors In Prisons: A Nationwide Survey Of Correctional Mental Health Directors, Kenneth L. Appelbaum, Judith A. Savageau, Robert L. Trestman, Jeffrey L. Metzner

Judith A. Savageau

Self-injurious behavior (SIB) by inmates has serious health, safety, operational, security and fiscal consequences. Serious incidents require a freeze in normal facility operations. Injuries that need outside medical attention create additional security risks, including potential escape attempts. The interruption of normal operations, diversion of staff, cost of outside care, and drain on medical and mental health resources all have significant fiscal consequences. This session will present the results and implications of a survey of the Mental Health Directors in all 51 state and federal prison systems on the extent of SIB by inmates, including incidence and prevalence, adverse consequences, and …

A Transformational Melancholy: One Law Professor's Journey Through Depression, Marjorie A. Silver

Marjorie A. Silver

In the fall 2007 issue of the Journal of Legal Education, Professor James Jones shared his deeply personal, remarkable, ongoing, story of living, struggling and succeeding as a law professor with bipolar disorder (James T.R. Jones, Walking the Tightrope of Bipolar Disorder: The Secret Life of a Law Professor, 57 J. LEGAL ED. 349 (2007). His essay ended with an invitation to other members of the legal academy to contact him or Professor Elyn Saks, author of an extraordinary memoir about her life with schizophrenia, (ELYN R. SAKS, THE CENTER CANNOT HOLD (2007)) if interested in forming a confidential support …

Humane Punishment For Seriously Disordered Offenders: Sentencing Departures And Judicial Control Over Conditions Of Confinement, E. Lea Johnston

E. Lea Johnston

At sentencing, a judge may foresee that an individual with a major mental disorder will experience serious psychological or physical harm in prison. In light of this reality and offenders’ other potential vulnerabilities, a number of jurisdictions currently allow judges to treat undue offender hardship as a mitigating factor at sentencing. In these jurisdictions, vulnerability to harm may militate toward an order of probation or a reduced term of confinement. Since these measures do not affect offenders’ day-to-day experience in confinement, these expressions of mitigation fail to protect adequately those vulnerable offenders who must serve time in prison. This Article …

Creating Hope: Mental Health In Western Australian Maximum Security Prisons, Jennifer Fleming, Natalie Gately, Sharan Kraemer

Natalie Gately Dr

The status of prisoners’ mental health has wide-reaching implications for prison inmates, prison authorities and institutions, and the general community. This paper presents the mental health findings from the 2008 Health of Prisoner Evaluation (HoPE) pilot project in which 146 maximum security prisoners were interviewed across two prisons in Western Australia. Results revealed significant discrepancies across gender and Indigenous status regarding the history and treatment of mental health complaints, use of prescribed psychiatric medication, and experience of psychosocial distress. Illicit drug use and dependency, as well as patterns of self-harm and suicide are also reported. These findings highlight that imprisonment …

Empathy For Psychopaths: Using Fmri Brain Scans To Plea For Leniency In Death Penalty Cases, Kimberly D. Phillips

Kimberly D Phillips

Death Ineligibility And Habeas Corpus, Lee B. Kovarsky

Lee Kovarsky

I examine the interaction between what I call 'death ineligibility' challenges and the habeas writ. A death ineligibility claim alleges that a criminally-confined capital prisoner belongs to a category of offenders for which the Eighth Amendment forbids execution. By contrast, a 'crime innocence' claim alleges that, colloquially speaking, a capital prisoner 'wasn’t there, and didn’t do it.' In the last eight years, the Supreme Court has identified several new ineligibility categories, including mentally retarded offenders. Configured primarily to address crime innocence and procedural challenges, however, modern habeas law is poorly equipped to accommodate ineligibility claims. Death Ineligibility traces the genesis …

Using The Fcb Grid To Evaluate A Failed Mental Health Levy: The Marketing Implications Of Stigma, Oscar T. Mcknight, Ronald Paugh, Steffi Liotta, Wenhui Jin

Oscar T McKnight Ph.D.

This research found that using the FCB Grid to develop and evaluate a mental health levy campaign has merit. Likewise, stigma has both positive and negative impact on a mental health levy. Introduced is the ‘STIGMA’ planning model to help mental health professionals pass a public mental health levy.

Death, Ineligibility And Habeas Corpus, Lee B. Kovarsky

Lee Kovarsky

I examine the interaction between what I call 'death ineligibility' challenges and the habeas writ. A death ineligibility claim alleges that a criminally-confined capital prisoner belongs to a category of offenders for which the Eighth Amendment forbids execution. By contrast, a 'crime innocence' claim alleges that, colloquially speaking, a capital prisoner 'wasn’t there, and didn’t do it.' In the last eight years, the Supreme Court has identified several new ineligibility categories, including mentally retarded offenders. Configured primarily to address crime innocence and procedural challenges, however, modern habeas law is poorly equipped to accommodate ineligibility claims. Death Ineligibility traces the genesis …

Mentally Ill Prisoners In The California Department Of Corrections And Rehabilitation: Strategies For Improving Treatment And Reducing Recidivism

W. David Ball

California prisons and jails treat more people with mental illness than hospitals and residential treatment centers combined. Mentally ill prisoners receive inadequate medical and psychiatric care, serve longer terms than the average inmate, and are released without adequate preparation and support for their return to society. As a result, these offenders are much more likely to violate parole and return to prison, cycling ever-downward. With the California prison healthcare system currently in receivership, and the state poised to spend more money on prisons than on colleges in the coming fiscal year, this paper addresses a topic that is both underreported …

Setting The Legal Context: What Is The Meaning Of Equal Access To Mental Health Services, Randy Lee, Mary Kate Kearney

Randy Lee

No abstract provided.