Foreword

I have worked at the intersection of mental health and criminal justice policy for more than 5 decades and have had the opportunity to collaborate with many talented and dedicated forensic psychiatrists and psychologists as they have struggled to overcome impediments to care for an increasing number of defendants and prisoners suffering from distressing disorders. I have watched “correctional psychiatry” move to the center of the profession’s challenges and commitments. I was therefore pleased to have the opportunity to write the Foreword to the first edition of this richly informative textbook when it was published a decade ago. In that Foreword, I expressed hope that the nation was poised to invest in a range of community services that might enable the courts to rely less on penal incarceration and more on (a) civil interventions in nonpunitive and less restrictive residential settings and (b) leveraged use of criminal sanctions in outpatient settings. Although promising innovations have taken root in some localities (and are highlighted in this text), courts, jails, hospitals, penal facilities, community programs, and system-involved patients and their families continue to face daunting challenges.