Mental Health Is a Correctional Priority
Mental Illness Among Inmates Is at 16% and Rising
Successful Re-entry: The Perspective of Private Correctional Health Care Providers
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, approximately 650,000 people are released from prisons each year. To reduce recidivism and associated costs, communities need re-entry programs so that former inmates can become productive citizens. We know that this is not an easy task. MHM was pleased to be one of a handful of industry leading companies that sent representatives to the roundtable discussion organized in early 2006 at the Prisoner Reentry Institute at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. This unique group of for-profit correctional health care providers assembled to provide their perspective on barriers to re-entry and to work on ways to bridge the health and behavioral health needs of inmates from incarceration to the community. As a result of the initial and subsequent discussions and with input from academics and correctional administrators and practitioners, a position paper titled "Successful Re-entry: The Perspective of Private Correctional Health Care Providers" was published. As we currently support community reentry projects for all of our client agency partners, we believe this effort established through John Jay College of Criminal Justice will ultimately benefit our clients by establishing national standards for discharge planning and explore funding opportunities. Our work is only beginning.