Promoting the delivery of appropriate correctional health and mental
health services has been a critical part of the Board’s mission. Spurred by its
longstanding concern about inmate suicides, the Board held public hearings in
the early 1980s to explore the quality and availability of mental health
services provided to prisoners. Thereafter, the Board worked collaboratively
with the Departments of Correction, Health, and Mental Health, and the Mayor’s
Office of Operations, the Office of Management and Budget and contract service
providers to develop Mental Health Minimum Standards for the City’s jails.
When the Mental Health Standards were implemented in 1985, New York City became the first jurisdiction in the country to voluntarily require itself to provide appropriate mental health staffing and other resources. The results were immediate and significant. In 1986, the first full year of Standards implementation, there were three suicides - down from eleven the preceding year.
Key elements of the Mental Health Minimum Standards include mental health screening of all incoming prisoners within 24 hours of arrival in DOC custody, training of correctional and medical staff in the recognition of mental and emotional disorders, special housing areas for those inmates with mental or emotional disorders in need of close supervision, 24-hour access to mental health services personnel for emergency psychiatric care, and a prisoner observation aide program that employs trained, carefully-selected inmates to help monitor those inmates identified as potential suicide risks.
Mental Health Minimum Standards
Download mental health minimum standards document (PDF format)