NCJ Number
186711
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 62 Issue: 7 Dated: December 2000 Pages: 64-68
Date Published
December 2000
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article examines managing offenders with special needs.
Abstract
Special needs offenders include mentally ill persons, youthful offenders in adult prisons, older offenders (the fastest-growing population in State prisons), and female offenders, including pregnant women and mothers (about 70 percent of women in prison have at least one child younger than 18 and an average of two to three children). The article reviews several States' attempts to deal with these special circumstances. Maryland's Community Criminal Justice Treatment Program provides mental health and substance abuse treatment, medical care, and housing in an effort to keep mentally ill offenders out of the criminal justice system. Oregon and Texas have designed and implemented programs to assist mentally ill persons within the criminal justice system and to facilitate their return to the community upon completion of their sentences. The article concludes that effective management of offenders with special needs requires that investigators and other criminal justice professionals who have initial contact with these offenders understand individuals' behaviors. This approach allows correctional staff to manage offenders and resources more effectively. References