Psychiatric Care of Federal Prisoners
LOREN H. ROTH M.D.1, and
FRANK R. ERVIN M.D.2
1 Clinical Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass. 02114
2 Director of the Stanley Cobb Laboratories for Psychiatric Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass. 02114 and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass.
Data from a thorough review of the records of 1,154 prisoners in the federal penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pa., indicated that the psychiatric morbidity within this group was about 20 percent. The bulk of psychiatric effort with the prisoners studied took place at the pretrial or immediate posttrial stage; very few inmates were seen again specifically for treatment. The authors believe that more effort should be devoted to the psychiatric evaluation and treatment of the convicted offender; among other benefits, this may be an efficient method of screening for and preventing future violent behavior.
