Mental health efforts in prisons and jails most often ignore the mental illness prevention capabilities of main-line correctional personnel. By focusing on inmates with drug dependencies or severe psychiatric disorders, traditional mental health services have failed to come to grips with the problems created for “normal inmates” by the conditions of confinement. This article argues that indigenous correctional personnel might supplement the efforts of professional treatment staff by learning to assist inmates in coping with the stress produced by everyday institutional living conditions.
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