Mental Illness in Prison: Inmate Rehabilitation & Correctional Officers in Crisis

Abstract

The work examines the mental illness crisis in California prisons, paying specific attention to the state’s recent shift back to rehabilitation principles. By analysis of California statutes, correctional officer training materials, mental health jurisprudence, and scholarly literature, this article argues that the collateral effects of the growing mental illness population on both prisoners and correctional staff is of the most formidable foes facing California’s new rehabilitation strategy.

Keywords: Mental Illness, California, Prisons, Criminal Justice, Correctional Officer training