Introduction to Mental Health Treatment in Corrections
A Clinician’s Perspective
By Emil R. Pinta, M.D.

Drawing on his thirty-five years of field experience, Dr. Emil Pinta has written a tremendously useful, practical, and sanity-preserving guide to the unique clinical conditions faced by psychologists and psychiatrists working in corrections. 

For therapists treating patients in prisons, jails, or residential treatment facilities, here is a practical introduction to providing mental health services to offenders.  Dr. Pinta clearly and concisely prepares readers with everything new (and experienced) psychologists and psychiatrists need to know before taking on this immensely challenging assignment:

• Prison Culture and Environment
• General Treatment Considerations in the Correctional Setting
• Prison Prevalence Rates for Mental Disorders—Implications and Treatment Programs
• Medication in Prisons
• Suicide Prevention
• Treating the Violent Inmate
• Special Situations and Ethical Issues

Every chapter provides clear, practical guidance for staff who work with mentally disordered inmates. Individual mental health professionals will find hands-on guidance in how to balance their dual roles as mental health professionals and corrections staff. Corrections managers as well as administrators charged specifically with providing health and mental health care to inmates, can also use this concise handbook for training (see Quantity Discount link for information on reduced pricing for multiple-copy orders).

About the Author

Emil R. Pinta, M.D., was on the full-time faculty of the Ohio State University department of psychiatry from 1972 to 1991 where his principal teaching and research interests were psychosocial therapies, forensic and correctional psychiatry, medical ethics, evaluation and treatment of violent behavior, and the history of medical and psychiatric education. In 1985 he was voted “Teacher of the Year” by his psychiatry residents. Dr. Pinta was a psychiatry consultant to Ohio’s prison system from 1972 to 2007, and practiced at both men’s and women’s prisons and at a residential-treatment unit (RTU) for male inmates. He was also a psychiatrist in California’s prison system at an acute-care psychiatric unit in Folsom. Dr. Pinta is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and has been a member of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law since 1973. He is first-author on articles published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, American Journal of Psychoanalysis, Psychiatric Services, American Journal of Forensic Psychiatry, and the Correctional Mental Health Report. Introduction to Mental Health Treatment in Corrections: A Clinician’s Perspective is his fourth book.

Related Publications:
Correctional Mental Health Report
Correctional Psychology
Correctional Psychiatry