Human rights

Abstract This chapter provides a brief overview of key internationally recognized human rights applicable to correctional mental health professionals and the challenges they face incorporating those norms into their work. Human rights reflect a humanistic vision predicated on the foundation of human dignity and complement the ethical principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence. The human rights framework can support carceral mental health staff’s efforts to protect incarcerated persons (IPs) from harm and to provide them the treatment they need. The applicable norms require mental health staff to treat IPs with clinical independence and according to community treatment standards. But human rights—as well as medical ethics—also require mental health staff to seek changes in carceral practices and conditions of confinement that violate the rights of IPs, including those which constitute torture or other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Of particular concern in today’s carceral systems are prolonged stays in restrictive housing (solitary confinement) of IPs with mental illness and the abusive use of force by carceral staff in response to IPs’ conduct.