The Mentally Retarded Offender in the State Prison System

Abstract

This study established a current average national estimate of the prevalence of mental retardation among state prison inmates, and gathered information regarding their adjustment to incarceration and rehabilitative services provided them. It was determined that an average of 2% or about 7,600 inmates are mentally retarded, and that the number presently confined in all types of correctional settings is approximately 12,640. That relatively low figure was attributed to the emergence of various diversion processes and improved psychometric practice, and it was expected that these ongoing trends would reduce this prevalence rate even further in the future. It was also concluded that the mentally retarded do not adjust well to prison life, and that the mentally retarded do not adjust well to prison life, and that supplemental rehabilitation services for them at those sites had not expanded appreciably over the past two decades.