Inmates Lose Their Mental Health Treatment Options Once Incarcerated
In 2001, the Community Corrections Improvement Association developed a project informing the public, the media and policymakers about mental health issues facing prison inmates in Iowa and their impact on community safety.
The association is a private foundation in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that supports the efforts of the Department of Correctional Services in Iowa's Sixth Judicial District.
Key Findings
- Consensus among responding participants that the state is not meeting its legal obligations across nine mandates addressing mental health services for those in Iowa's corrections system.
- A view that a lack of communication between the state's mental health providers, funders and corrections staff is a key problem.
- A sense of urgency among those involved in the issues to address the underlying causes of these shortcomings.
- Support for several tested solutions, although respondents stated that no single fix would succeed.
- The vast majority of responding participants believed that increasing mental health and substance abuse services to prisoners would have a positive impact on public safety following inmates' release back into the community.