An Integrated Treatment Program for Mentally Ill Offenders: Description and Evaluation

• DOI: 10.1177/0306624X8202600109
• Author: Margaret K. Cooke,Gerald Cooke
• Date: 01 January 1982
• Published date: 01 January 1982
• Subject Matter: Articles

53

An

Integrated

Treatment

Program

for

Mentally

Ill

Offenders:

Description

and

Evaluation*

Margaret

K.

Cooke

and

Gerald

Cooke

MARTINSON

(1974)

and

others

have

reported

that

rehabilita-

tion

of

offenders

has

&dquo;failed&dquo;.

Critics

of

this

point

of

view

respond

that

rehabilitation

has

never

really

been

tried

and

that

the

programs

reviewed

to

reach

that

conclusion

suffer

from

severe

deficits

which

would

preclude

their

success.

The

present

study

describes

a

program

which

the

authors

believe

constitutes

a

model

for

cooperation

between

the

criminal

justice

and

mental

health

systems.

Data

supporting

the

effectiveness

of

this

approach

is

presented.

Description

of

the

Program

The

Pennsylvania

Bureau

of

Corrections

and

the

Regional

Forensic

Psychiatric

Center

at

Norristown

State

Hospital

launched

a

cooperative

treatment

effort

by

transferring

mentally

ill

offenders

to

a

23

bed

unit

at

the

Forensic

Center.

The

program,

which

was

funded

through

the

correctional

budget,

aided

by

an

LEAA

Grant, t

differed

from

traditional

forensic

hospitals

in

a

number

of

important

respects.

First,

it

was

administered

jointly

by

the

Bureau

of

Corrections

and

the

Department

of

Welfare.

Correctional

personnel

included

an

on-site

full-time

project

coordinator,

as

well

as

the

security

staff

(correctional

officers).

Hospital

personnel

included

psychiatric

aides,

nurses,

psychiatrists,

psychologists,

social

workers

and

auxiliary

treatment

personnel.

Hospital

and

correctional

personnel

jointly

comprised

the

treatment

team.

Administrative

and

operational

pro-

cedures

and

problems

were

mutually

negotiated

by

both

agencies.

While

the

traditional

schism

between

treatment

and

custody

made

itself

evident,

problems

arising

from

this

conflict

were

often

resolved

to

the

patient’s

best

interest

through

such

negotiations,

whereas

this

is

frequently

impossible

when

either

correctional

or

treatment

personnel

administer

such

a

program

individually.

For

example,

at

one

point

the

Bureau

of

Corrections

wished

to

imple-

ment

a

procedure

whereby

hospital

staff

would

be

required

to

formally

report

any

infraction

of

the

rules

to

the

prison

for

inclu-

*This

paper

was

originally

presented

at

the

American

Psychological

Association

Annual

Convention,

New

York,

1979.

the

project

and

evaluation

was

supported

in

part

by

LEAA

Grant

DS-75-C-8D-9-621

administered

by

the

Pennsylvania

Governor’s

Justice

Commission.