Psychiatry behind the walls: mental health services in jails and prisons

Throughout his professional career, Karl Menninger emphasized the importance of understanding criminal behavior and societal responses to such behavior. He focused on the need for more humane approaches within the criminal justice system. This article focuses on the current needs and anticipated directions for psychiatric services in prisons and jails, including comprehensive systems approaches that can facilitate better treatment and decrease repeat offenses. With the growing number of individuals being incarcerated in jails and prisons, and with higher percentages needing mental health services, it is important that effective mental health services be designed and implemented. Services should provide quality interventions and treatments for the inmates, must take into account and be respectful of the security needs of the facility, and must deal sensitively and thoughtfully with the stresses and factors that contribute to burnout among the professional staff and security officials. In this way, we can achieve part of Karl Menninger's dictum to provide better care for those who are unfortunate enough to have their behavior result in their being incarcerated in jails and prisons.