Talk:Mentally ill people in United States jails and prisons/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Markworthen (talk · contribs) 12:43, 5 September 2015 (UTC)

I am currently reviewing this article. - Mark D Worthen PsyD 12:43, 5 September 2015 (UTC)

Review completed. - Mark D Worthen PsyD 11:45, 22 September 2015 (UTC)

Criteria

Good Article Status - Review Criteria

Further information: WP:WIAGA

A good article is—

1. Well-written:

(a) the prose is clear, concise, and understandable to an appropriately broad audience; spelling and grammar are correct; and

(b) it complies with the Manual of Style guidelines for lead sections, layout, words to watch, fiction, and list incorporation.

2. Verifiable with no original research:

(a) it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance with the layout style guideline;

(b) reliable sources are cited inline. All content that could reasonably be challenged, except for plot summaries and that which summarizes cited content elsewhere in the article, must be cited no later than the end of the paragraph (or line if the content is not in prose); and

(c) it contains no original research.

3. Broad in its coverage:

(a) it addresses the main aspects of the topic; and

(b) it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style).

4. Neutral: it represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each.
5. Stable: it does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoing edit war or content dispute.
6. Illustrated, if possible, by media such as images, video, or audio:

(a) media are tagged with their copyright statuses, and valid non-free use rationales are provided for non-free content; and

(b) media are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions.

Review

1. Well-written:

Criteria	Notes	Result
(a) (prose)	I offer some suggestions (below), but I consider the suggestions 'fine tuning' as the article exhibits above average prose quality.
(b) (MoS)	Some changes recommended (see below).	N

2. Verifiable with no original research:

Criteria	Notes	Result
(a) (references)	Please see comments and suggestions below.	N
(b) (citations to reliable sources)	No problems.	Y
(c) (original research)	No problems.	Y

3. Broad in its coverage:

Criteria	Notes	Result
(a) (major aspects)	Some major aspects not covered (see below).	N
(b) (focused)	The style suggestions for 1(a) will also sharpen the focus of the article.	Y

4. Neutral: it represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each.

Notes	Result
Looks good. :O)

5. Stable: it does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoing edit war or content dispute.

Notes	Result
The opposite: Civil, productive discussions. Good job!

6. Illustrated, if possible, by media such as images, video, or audio:

Criteria	Notes	Result
(a) (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales)	Although images are not required, they always help an article, in part by drawing readers in and keeping them engaged (we are visual creatures). See Manual of style:Images, which includes advice for finding good images for a Wikipedia article.
(b) (appropriate use with suitable captions)	n/a

Result

Result	Notes
N	But an excellent start on a vitally important topic!

Discussion

First of all, I want to thank Magen Eissenstat for writing about such a serious yet underappreciated problem that plagues correctional institutions--and most importantly, the mentally ill persons incarcerated therein--throughout the United States. Bravo! And my hat's off to the Rice University instructor, Vignespassy, who requires her/his students to create a Wikipedia article on a topic pertinent to the class, in this case Human Development in Global and Local Communities. What a great way to develop research, writing, and analytic skills, while also educating others! Nice. - Mark D Worthen PsyD 13:48, 5 September 2015 (UTC)

Note that my use of the pronouns 'you' and 'your' are meant to apply to any editors who work on this article, not any one specific editor. - Mark D Worthen PsyD 15:19, 22 September 2015 (UTC)

Detailed Comments and Suggestions based on Good Article Criteria

Good Article Criterion 1(a) Prose

• When reporting research findings, you usually do not need to include the study details in the main article text. For example, the first sentence in the Prevalence section is the right way to do it: "There is broad scholarly consensus that mentally ill individuals are overrepresented within the United States jail and prison populations." Great sentence!

• For example, for the next sentence, which begins: "In the 2010 study titled. ...", consider something like this instead: In fact, there are currently three times more seriously mentally ill persons in jails and prisons than in hospitals in the United States, with a nearly ten to one ratio in Arizona and Nevada.

Good Article Criterion 1(b) Lead

• The lead needs some improvement, although it is a solid start. I made a couple of changes myself (diff).

• I am not sure you need this sentence: "The majority of prisons in the United States employ a psychiatrist and a psychologist." I think the most important question is: Do correctional institutions provide reasonably good mental health treatment to inmates suffering from severe mental illness? I would put the answer to that question in the lead--just one sentence, because you will expand on it in the body of the article.

• I would rework this sentence: "While much research claims mentally ill offenders have comparable rates of recidivism to non-mentally ill offenders, other research claims that mentally ill offenders have higher rates of recidivism." As it stands now, it suffers from what social psychologists call the "recency effect", i.e., what we hear last (most recently) tends to dominate. Thus, the sentence conveys a sense that the best research indicates higher rates of recidivism, which I suspect is not what you intend to imply.

• "Mentally ill people experience solitary confinement at disproportionate rates and are more vulnerable to its adverse psychological effects." - Excellent point; nicely written sentence. :o) Perhaps include something in the body of the article about President Obama's new initiative to reduce solitary confinement rates in federal prisons, and California's new policy in this regard. Good articles recently in the NY Times on this topic btw.

• "Twenty-five states have laws addressing the emergency detention of the mentally ill within jails..." --> I know what you mean here, but I don't think it is clear to the average reader. The problem is the verb "addressing", which is vague.

• "...the United States Supreme Court has upheld the right of inmates to mental health treatment." --> Slight tweak suggested: the United States Supreme Court has asserted that inmates suffering from severe mental illness must receive adequate mental health treatment. (Of course, whether or not that happens in practice is another question.)

Good Article Criterion 1(b) Layout

I don't see any problems here. :O)

Good Article Criterion 2(a) References

• Torrey, et al. 1998 is not listed in the References.

• Torrey, E.; Kennard, A.; Eslinger, D.; et. al (2010) falls into the category of grey literature, meaning in part that it was not subject to peer review. That does not necessarily mean it has no value or credibility. In this case, the lead author (E. Fuller Torrey, M.D.) is a leading expert on seriously mentally ill people in the U.S., not to mention the other authors's credentials. Thus, one or two references to the document would have been fine, but it is cited 11 times. An alternative would be to consult some of the texts referenced in Torrey, et al. (2010), many of which are to peer-reviewed scholarly journals.

• I don't recognize the citation style used in the article--it is similar to APA Style, but not APA Style itself. This is not a problem because Wikipedia requires within-article consistency in citation style, not adherence to a particular style. At the same time, since most folks involved in research and intervention use APA Style, one might want to consider converting to APA Style for the reference list. (Although I do not recommend the same for in-text referencing, i.e., footnotes are much easier to read.)

Good Article Criterion 3(a) Main aspects

Some major aspects that need coverage (in no particular order) include:

• economic costs
• mental health courts (one brief paragraph, and then link to Mental health court)
• veterans courts
• how 'mental illness' is defined, and how the definition affects research results, e.g., 'any mental disorder' versus 'serious mental illness'
• significant effect of substance use disorders on incarceration generally, recidivism, and as a co-occurring condition with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
• probable racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities
• juvenile versus adult findings
• more nuanced discussion of the role of transinstitutionalization, e.g., the multiple factors that have led to the current problems
• unique problems faced by female, LGBTQI, undocumented immigrants, and perhaps others.
• expand coverage of legal issues - this is a big topic in itself, so no need for comprehensive coverage, but more coverage is needed.

Search Strategies for Mentally ill people in United States jails and prisons

Expanding your review of reliable sources will help improve coverage of the major aspects. Three particularly effective methods to achieve this task are:

1. When reading a good journal article, locate some of the key references cited in the article to see if they also might add substance to the Wikipedia article.
2. Use Google Scholar to find subsequent articles that have cited the good journal article you have read. Search for the article by title in Google Scholar, then when the article is displayed, click on the Cited by link to generate a list of articles that have cited the present one.
3. Similarly, after finding an article in Google Scholar, click on the Related articles link.

As a jump start, here are some pertinent journal articles on the topic. Note that the doi links take you to the publisher's web page for the article.

Cowell, A. J., Hinde, J. M., Broner, N., & Aldridge, A. P. (2013). The impact on taxpayer costs of a jail diversion program for people with serious mental illness. Evaluation and Program Planning, 41, 31–37. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2013.07.001

Greenberg, G. A., & Rosenheck, R. A. (2014). Psychiatric correlates of past incarceration in the national co-morbidity study replication. Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health: CBMH, 24(1), 18–35. http://doi.org/10.1002/cbm.1875

Hawthorne, W. B., Folsom, D. P., Sommerfeld, D. H., Lanouette, N. M., Lewis, M., Aarons, G. A., … Jeste, D. V. (2012). Incarceration among adults who are in the public mental health system: rates, risk factors, and short-term outcomes. Psychiatric Services, 63(1), 26–32. http://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201000505

Lynch, S. M., Dehart, D. D., Belknap, J. E., Green, B. L., Dass-Brailsford, P., Johnson, K. A., & Whalley, E. (2014). A multisite study of the prevalence of serious mental illness, PTSD, and substance use disorders of women in jail. Psychiatric Services, 65(5), 670–674. http://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201300172

Nowotny, K. M. (2015). Race/ethnic disparities in the utilization of treatment for drug dependent inmates in U.S. state correctional facilities. Addictive Behaviors, 40, 148–153. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2014.09.005

Olley, M. C., Nicholls, T. L., & Brink, J. (2009). Mentally ill individuals in limbo: obstacles and opportunities for providing psychiatric services to corrections inmates with mental illness. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 27(5), 811–831. http://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.899

Prins, S. J. (2011). Does transinstitutionalization explain the overrepresentation of people with serious mental illnesses in the criminal justice system? Community Mental Health Journal, 47(6), 716–722. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-011-9420-y

Prins, S. J. (2014). Prevalence of mental illnesses in US State prisons: a systematic review. Psychiatric Services, 65(7), 862–872. http://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201300166

Of course, it is also important to search relevant databases for additional peer-reviewed articles, books, and reports. IMHO the most valuable databases for this topic, in order of importance, are:

• PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES - Individual subscription or institutional access required.
• PubMed (MEDLINE) - Although PubMed is (thankfully) free, finding full text versions of articles, as opposed to the abstract only, can be a challenge without institutional access. For editors not enrolled in college or university, or whose employer does not subscribe to various full text providers, you can inquire at community and public university libraries. I recommend visiting such libraries in person and speaking with a reference librarian. (One should not underestimate the exceptionally valuable assistance reference librarians provide.)
• National Criminal Justice Reference Service - Free from the U.S. Department of Justice
• Social Science Research Network - Great source for full text articles.
• Google Scholar - Last on this list, but certainly not least, as attested to by the frequent references I've made to it herein!

Here are some helpful 'how to' documents, videos, and tips for searching PubMed and Google Scholar. (I would have offered some tips for PsycINFO too, but I'm writing this from home and I access PsycINFO from work.)

PubMed (MEDLINE)

http://PubMed.org

How to use the PubMed Advanced Search Builder (PubMed Video)

How to use the PubMed Filters Sidebar (PubMed Video)

How to Use MeSH to Build a Better PubMed Query (PubMed Video) ==> Example: "Mental Health Services"[Mesh] AND "Prisoners"[Mesh] AND "United States"[Mesh]

PubMed Help

Finding Systemic Reviews in PubMed

MeSH terms relevant to the article

Note: This is not an exhaustive list.

MeSH Major Topic [MAJR] - Primary

• Community Mental Health Services
• Criminal Law
• Humans
• Mental Disorders
• Mental Health Services
• Prisoners
• United States

MeSH Major Topic [MAJR] - Secondary

• Odds Ratio
• Risk Factors
• Severity of Illness Index
• Socioeconomic Factors

MeSH Subheadings [SH] - Primary

• Crime/statistics & numerical data
• Homeless Persons/psychology/statistics & numerical data
• Mental Disorders/diagnosis
• Mentally Ill Persons/legislation & jurisprudence
• Mentally Ill Persons/statistics & numerical data
• Prisoners/statistics & numerical data
• Prisoners/psychology
• Prisons/statistics & numerical data
• Prisoners/psychology
• Prisoners/statistics & numerical data
• Prisons/statistics & numerical data

MeSH Subheadings [SH] - Secondary

• Crime Victims/statistics & numerical data
• Depressive Disorder, Major/epidemiology
• Mental Disorders/economics
• Mental Disorders/epidemiology
• Mental Disorders/psychology
• Mental Disorders/therapy
• Mental Health Services/economics
• Mental Health Services/statistics & numerical data
• Psychotic Disorders/epidemiology
• Schizophrenia/epidemiology
• Substance-Related Disorders/rehabilitation
• Substance-Related Disorders/diagnosis
• Substance-Related Disorders/epidemiology
• Substance-Related Disorders/psychology

MeSH Terms [MH] - Sort (Use if you want to focus on a particular population - other good 'sort' MeSH terms would be those that specify ethnic, racial, socioeconomic, LGBTQI, and other subgroups)

• Adolescent
• Adult
• Female
• Male

Google Scholar

https://scholar.google.com/

Google Scholar Search FAQ

How are documents ranked in Google Scholar search results? - "Google Scholar aims to rank documents the way researchers do, weighing the full text of each document, where it was published, who it was written by, as well as how often and how recently it has been cited in other scholarly literature." - from the Google Scholar home page.

Google Scholar Search Tips - Google Scholar Help

Using Google Scholar - Cooperative Library Instruction Project (CLIP) Video

Example search query: "mentally ill" prison* (limited to years 2005-2015) - click to see search results if you search for < "mentally ill" prison* >