St. Louis City Jail Diversion Project Case Study

As more inmates are found guilty and are given prison sentences the prison system has to focus on separating special needs offenders. This separation is necessary to insure safety and balance within the facility. The special needs population can affect both the state and federal level of incarceration because they must gather accurate date. Putting offenders with different needs together can lead to violence issues among inmates. There is also an increase possibility of mental and emotion strain on all ready unstable prisoners
Correctional agencies today face many serious management problems that they did not have in the past as a result of the increasing proportion of the correctional population that may be termed as special offenders. The
Louis Jail Diversion Project” (which helps inmates that are released). This program assists inmates in various ways by providing individual therapy and counseling, employment services, Psychiatric evaluation, monitoring of medication, housing access, how an individual is living and transitional living services, and outpatient and inpatient alcohol and drug treatment. The program has a big success in keeping repeat offenders from going back to jail and even releasing inmates in jail on early parole. Many inmates that have enrolled into this program have been released. At the time of the present analysis, the large majority (84.1 percent) of the jail diversion clients enrolled during the SAMHSA grant period had been discharged. Of these, most (68.8 percent) were discharged because they successfully completed treatment (City of St. Louis Jail Diversion Project Final Evaluation Report
Special needs can encompass many types of conditions like offenders with severe psychological needs, mental retardation, significant psychiatric disorders, behavior disorders, multiple handicaps, neurological impairment and substance abuse; or offenders with physical handicaps, or chronic or terminal illnesses; or elderly offenders; or offenders with severe social and/or educational deficiencies, learning disabilities or language barriers; or offenders with special security or supervision needs, such as protective custody cases, death row inmates and those who chronically exhibit potential or aggressive behavior; or sex offenders, for whom appropriate treatment may reduce the risk of reoffending (http://definitions.uslegal.com)”. Therefore, these types of inmates need that extra attention and honestly would be better taken care of and better off in an institution for the criminally insane. Where they would be surrounded by staff who have years and years of experience and who have the knowledge to properly take care of them. Would you rather have your child treated by a doctor or a school nurse? I think you get the