Evaluating the quality of correctional mental health services: an approach to surveying a correctional mental health system.

As part of a class action suit, the author was asked to assess the quality of mental health services in eight prisons in Georgia. This paper describes the background to the suit, reviews selected literature on assessing quality of correctional mental health care, and describes methods used to survey prison mental health services. A standardized survey instrument was developed with probe questions to assess the quality of services. Individual cases were reviewed, inmates were interviewed, and the quality of mental health structures, processes, and outcomes were assessed. Key findings from the survey are summarized. The author concluded that the quality of mental health services in the prisons surveyed was so low overall as to constitute a pattern of deliberate indifference, and that the services were constitutionally inadequate.