Adult Forensics
The adult prison population presents society with a complex set of issues and con-
troversies requiring thoughtful, manageable, and effective responses. The assorted
tools of the psychological sciences and the law are increasingly called upon to
makes sense out of difficult correctional questions affecting the lives of prisoners
and the community of which they are a part. Thus, not only are the skills of the
forensic professional utilized for purposes of evaluating, diagnosing, and treating in-
mates, they are also employed for purposes of understanding the correctional milieu
itself.
This chapter describes a limited number of topics that are of considerable concern
for psychologists working in prison settings or responding to matters of confine-
ment for offenders. While certainly other subjects could have been investigated in
this chapter, the issues explored represent some of the more controversial matters
affecting correctional psychology today. These topics include (1) an offender's right
to refuse medical treatment, (2) incarcerating and executing the mentally ill, (3) sex
offender treatment, (4) technology and electronic monitoring, (5) prison violence,
and (6) the underground economy of prisons.
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