“The law informs mental health care in correctional settings in unique and challenging ways.  Cohen and colleagues bring these issues to life in a very readable, crisp, and engaging fashion.” 
—from a review by Robert L. Trestman, PhD, MD, in Psychiatric Times

“Many of my incarcerated clients suffer from some form of mental health problem, so I put the Practical Guide to a truly practical test: could it help me understand the scope of treatment to which various of my clients are entitled, and would recourse to any sort of legal process be likely to help them.  The Practical Guide did not disappoint. And just as important as providing guidance regarding the limited legal options available, it also provided helpful information regarding best practices.”
—Diane E. Courselle, Winston S. Howard Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Defender Aid Program at the University of Wyoming College of Law, in Criminal Law Bulletin, Spring 2012, Volume 48 Number 2

“Indispensable for anyone involved in prison or jail administration or prisoner advocacy.  Cohen and his colleagues’ efforts serve to enable advocates of mental health reform to improve the care and conditions of mentally ill prisoners, and demonstrate Cohen’s dedication …”
— Prison Legal News

Everything you need to know to meet your legal responsibilities and ensure a plan of care that will stand up in court …

Providing decent care to mentally disordered inmates is good corrections policy—and it is the law. Constitutionally, detainees and inmates who are seriously mentally ill are entitled to treatment and may also have special rights in the areas of intake screening, proper records, consent to forced medication, and much more. Failure to provide mandated care exposes both the institution and individual officers or treatment staff to liability. Apart from liability concerns, decent mental health care contributes to the security of the facility, enhances the staff’s work environment, and eases the suffering of the mentally ill inmates.

Now a single-volume “library” you can reach for when you need to know what leading experts say you should do—and what the law says you must do. 

Administrators, corrections officials, therapists, agency attorneys, inmate advocates and educators will find Practical Guide to Correctional Mental Health and the Law a one-volume “library” on the key issues involved in managing and treating incarcerated persons with mental illness. Here is practical guidance from the nation’s foremost expert on correctional mental health care law. Learn the best ways to manage mentally ill prisoners from intake through classification to treatment and post-discharge care ... get easy-to-understand, plain-language answers to the difficult legal and procedural questions that arise in managing these special populations.

It’s all here in the definitive professional reference on the subject—comprehensive treatment of constitutional issues and case law on corrections policy and procedure, staff training, and professional liability:

• Legal principles and precedents the courts rely on to determine whether an inmate’s mental illness is “serious” and requires treatment—and how they are likely to apply to your facility’s procedures and decisions if your agency is sued
• Key components of a comprehensive mental health treatment program for inmates—from intake screening through diagnosis and treatment to reentry planning
• Specific steps your facility can and should take to ensure adequate care—and what standards the courts will use in judging your institution’s procedures
• Why “treatment” and “rehabilitation” are different, and what that difference means in terms of the institution’s obligation to the inmate

From the most respected and widely consulted authority in the field …

Fred Cohen, LL.B., LL.M., is one of America’s foremost experts on correctional law and is generally recognized as the leading scholar and practitioner in correctional mental health law. He has served as federal court monitor for correctional medical and dental care in Ohio’s prisons: Fussell v. Wilkinson. Mr. Cohen also is an active member of the ABA Task Force to revise “Standards for Corrections.” He is Professor Emeritus at the Graduate School of Criminal Justice, State University of New York-Albany, a program he helped found, and he continues to lecture and consult widely while serving as Executive Editor of Correctional Mental Health Report and Correctional Law Reporter.

Related Publications:
Correctional Law Reporter
Correctional Mental Health Report
The Mentally Disordered Inmate and the Law, 2nd Edition