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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 8:47 pm
Time: 8:47 pm
Results for federal bureau of prisons (u.s.)
1 results foundAuthor: U.S. Government Accountability Office Title: Bureau of Prisons: Timelier Reviews, Plan for Evaluations, and Updated Policies Could Improve Inmate Mental Health Services Oversight Summary: During a 5-year period--fiscal years 2008 through 2012--costs for inmate mental health services in institutions run by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) rose in absolute dollar amount, as well as on an annual per capita basis. Specifically, mental health services costs rose from $123 million in fiscal year 2008 to $146 million in fiscal year 2012, with increases generally due to three factors--inmate population increases, general inflationary increases, and increased participation rates in psychology treatment programs such as drug abuse treatment programs. Additionally, the per capita cost rose from $741 in fiscal year 2008 to $821 in fiscal year 2012. It is projected that these costs will continue to increase with an estimated per capita cost of $876 in fiscal year 2015, due, in part, to increased program funding and inflation. BOP conducts various internal reviews that assess institutions' compliance with its policies related to mental health services, and it also requires institutions to obtain external accreditations. BOP's internal program reviews are on-site audits of a specific program, including two that are relevant to mental health services--psychology and health services. Most institutions in GAO's sample received good or superior ratings on their psychology and health services program reviews, but these reviews did not always occur within BOP-established time frames, generally due to lack of staff availability. When reviews were postponed, delays could be lengthy, sometimes exceeding a year, even for those institutions with the lowest ratings in previous reviews. Moreover, BOP has not evaluated whether most of its psychology treatment programs are meeting their established goals and has not developed a plan to do so. BOP is developing an approach for reporting on the relative reduction in recidivism associated with major inmate programs, which may include some psychology treatment programs. Using this opportunity to develop a plan for evaluating its psychology treatment programs would help ensure that the necessary evaluation activities, as well as any needed program changes, are completed in a timely manner. Further, BOP's program statements--its formal policies--related to mental health services contain outdated information. Policy changes are instead communicated to staff through memos. By periodically updating its program statements, BOP would be better assured that staff have a consistent understanding of its policies, and that these policies reflect current mental health care practices. BOP collects information on the daily cost to house the 13 percent of federal inmates in contract facilities, but it does not track the specific contractor costs of providing mental health services. The performance-based, fixed-price contracts that govern the operation of BOP's contract facilities give flexibility to the contractors to decide how to provide mental health services and do not require that they report their costs for doing so to BOP. BOP uses several methods to assess the contractors' compliance with contract requirements and standards of care. BOP conducts on-site reviews to assess the services provided to inmates in contract facilities, including those for mental health. BOP uses results from these reviews, as well as reports from external accrediting organizations, the presence of on-site monitors, and internal reviews conducted by the contract facility, to assess contractor compliance and to ensure that the contractor is consistently assessing the quality of its operations. Details: Washington, DC: GAO, 2013. 76p. Source: Internet Resource: GAO-13-1: Accessed July 18, 2013 at: http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/655903.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/655903.pdf Shelf Number: 129437 Keywords: Costs of CorrectionsFederal Bureau of Prisons (U.S.)Health CareMental Health ServicesMentally Ill OffendersPrisoners |