Incarceration and the Law, Cases and Materials


Book Description

In the age of American mass incarceration, a complex legal regime governs prison conditions and presents a host of controversial questions at the intersection of constitutional liberty, statutory interpretation, administrative regulation, and public policy. This is a completely overhauled, re-titled, and much-expanded version of the leading casebook about incarceration. It addresses both pretrial and post-conviction incarceration, presenting Supreme Court and leading lower court case law, statutes, litigation materials, professional standards, academic commentary, and prisoner writing. Topics include conditions of confinement, civil liberties, particular prisoner populations and relevant legal issues (race and national origin discrimination, the particular issues/law governing treatment of incarcerated women, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities). Litigated remedies (injunctive litigation, damages, the Prison Litigation Reform Act, and criminal prosecution of prison staff), are also covered in detail, as is non-litigation oversight. The casebook is supplemented by an open-access website that offers additional resources and sources for further reading.




Standards for Mental Health Services in Correctional Facilities


Book Description

NCCHC's Mental Health Standards parallel its Standards for Health Services in format and substance, and likewise cover the general areas of care and treatment, clinical records, administration, personnel and legal issues. The difference is that they make more explicit what the standards require for adequate delivery of mental health services. Together, these tools can help facilities determine proper levels of care, organize systems more effectively and efficiently, and demonstrate that constitutional requirements are being met.







Ethical Considerations for Research Involving Prisoners


Book Description

In the past 30 years, the population of prisoners in the United States has expanded almost 5-fold, correctional facilities are increasingly overcrowded, and more of the country's disadvantaged populations—racial minorities, women, people with mental illness, and people with communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C, and tuberculosis—are under correctional supervision. Because prisoners face restrictions on liberty and autonomy, have limited privacy, and often receive inadequate health care, they require specific protections when involved in research, particularly in today's correctional settings. Given these issues, the Department of Health and Human Services' Office for Human Research Protections commissioned the Institute of Medicine to review the ethical considerations regarding research involving prisoners. The resulting analysis contained in this book, Ethical Considerations for Research Involving Prisoners, emphasizes five broad actions to provide prisoners involved in research with critically important protections: • expand the definition of "prisoner"; • ensure universally and consistently applied standards of protection; • shift from a category-based to a risk-benefit approach to research review; • update the ethical framework to include collaborative responsibility; and • enhance systematic oversight of research involving prisoners.




Health and Incarceration


Book Description

Over the past four decades, the rate of incarceration in the United States has skyrocketed to unprecedented heights, both historically and in comparison to that of other developed nations. At far higher rates than the general population, those in or entering U.S. jails and prisons are prone to many health problems. This is a problem not just for them, but also for the communities from which they come and to which, in nearly all cases, they will return. Health and Incarceration is the summary of a workshop jointly sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences(NAS) Committee on Law and Justice and the Institute of Medicine(IOM) Board on Health and Select Populations in December 2012. Academics, practitioners, state officials, and nongovernmental organization representatives from the fields of healthcare, prisoner advocacy, and corrections reviewed what is known about these health issues and what appear to be the best opportunities to improve healthcare for those who are now or will be incarcerated. The workshop was designed as a roundtable with brief presentations from 16 experts and time for group discussion. Health and Incarceration reviews what is known about the health of incarcerated individuals, the healthcare they receive, and effects of incarceration on public health. This report identifies opportunities to improve healthcare for these populations and provides a platform for visions of how the world of incarceration health can be a better place.




Standards for Health Services in Jails


Book Description

Developed by leaders in the fields of health, law and corrections, NCCHC's nationally recognized Standards lay the foundation for constitutionally acceptable health services systems and can help prisons to improve health services delivery. The Standards address nine general areas: health care services and support, patient care and treatment, special needs and services, governance and administration, personnel and training, safety, health records, health promotion and medical-legal issues. The manual provides clear compliance indicators that define expected outcomes and aid in self-assessment, guidelines for facilities of various sizes and best practices recommendations. Glossary and index.




Standards for Health Services in Correctional Institutions


Book Description

The long-awaited, much-anticipated third edition of Standards for Health Services in Correctional Institutions is now available. The third edition of this book defines the scope of services that are necessary to provide adequate care, basing these standards upon principles of public health and constitutional standards developed through litigation. Previous editions of this book have been extraordinarily influential in this field. The book has been cited as the standard for jail and prison health services in state and federal court decisions. The new edition includes significant changes including expansion of both the mental health section and children and adolescents section. This important book contains rigorously prepared community standards, reflecting a health environment to which any community, but particularly a jail or prison community, is entitled. It sets standards of health care that are respectful of prisoner patients and require prison and jail based health care workers to view themselves as independent health care workers first and foremost. The new edition of this book is easy to use and has the most comprehensive and inclusive set of standards for health services in correctional institutions. It is an essential reference for anyone working or teaching in any capacity in the field of corrections.