Abstract
While legislatively sanctioned discrimination against the mentally ill in general society has largely disappeared, it persists in correctional systems where inmates are denied earn-time reductions in sentences, parole opportunities, placement in less restrictive facilities, and opportunities to participate in sentence-reducing programs because of their status as psychiatric patients or their need for psychotropic medications. The authors discuss the prevalence of such problems from detailed examinations of several correctional systems and from the results of a national survey of correctional medical directors.
Footnotes
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Dr. Miller is Professor of Psychiatry and Director, Program for Forensic Psychiatry, Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver; Lecturer in Law, University of Denver College of Law; Chief Psychiatrist, Colorado Department of Corrections, and Director of Research and Education, Institute for Forensic Psychiatry, Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, CO.
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Dr. Metzner is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver.
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This paper was presented at the 24th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, San Antonio, TX, October 28, 1993.
- Copyright © 1994, The American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
