A research-to-practice text offering a biopsychosocial approach to treating criminal offenders Correctional Mental Health is a broad-based, balanced guide for students who are learning to treat criminal offenders in a correctional mental health practice. Featuring a wide selection of readings, this edited text offers a thorough grounding in theory, current research, professional practice, and clinical experience. It emphasizes a biopsychosocial approach to caring for the estimated 20% of all U.S. prisoners who have a serious mental disorder. Providing a balance between theoretical and practical perspectives throughout, the text also provides readers with a big-picture framework for assessing current correctional mental health and criminal justice issues, offering clear strategies for addressing these challenges.

The number of criminal offenders with mental health problems has increased steadily. Yet few graduate programs offer courses that deal with the many complex assessment, treatment, and management issues encountered by correctional mental health workers.

The Correctional Mental Health Handbook is the first book to offer a comprehensive overview of the services provided by correctional mental health professionals for the various populations found in correctional programs and facilities. Edited by Thomas J. Fagan and Robert K. Ax, experts with over 40 years of correctional mental health experience, this unique handbook is divided into three sections. The first section provides a flexible model for organizing mental health services based on staffing levels, facility mission, and local need. The second section considers typical offender problems in many correctional systems and how they are customarily managed. The third section presents various clinical and consultative activities offered by mental health professionals within correctional settings.

A distinguished group of practitioners and scholars combine years of experience and cutting-edge research to examine

• The ethics of correctional mental health practice
• Practitioner roles within the correctional community
• Core mental health services for both single offenders and special need groups
• Program planning and release preparation for inmates
• Mental health services offered to institution staff
• Training hostage and crisis negotiators
• Future trends in correctional mental health

 While the main audience will be correctional mental health professionals and academics involved with training correctional mental health professionals, the Correctional Mental Health Handbook is also an ideal primer for graduate students studying corrections in criminal justice programs. For the student preparing to enter the correctional mental health profession, this indispensable text explains the general characteristics and treatment needs of specific inmate populations including: substance dependent offenders, female offenders, sexual predators, and juvenile offenders.