Mentally Disabled Inmates 297will improve the inmate's socialization skills. Therefore, the inmate will be prepared
to live on the outside and hopefully not return.
The other program described by j. N. Hall (1992) is the Georgia State Prison
Mental Retardation Unit. Unlike South Carolina's program, this is run through a
maximum-security facility. The prisoners typically are repeat offenders who have
committed violent crimes. Similar to South Carolina, this program teaches social-
ization and life-skills development. However, the goal is not to prepare the inmate
for the outside world but to emphasize institutional adaptation. An effort is made
to train the inmate on how to live inside the prison without committing further
crimes.
Santamour (1990) describes a special program for prisoners with mental retar-
dation that has been implemented in the Texas Department of Corrections. Once
an inmate is identified as possibly disabled, the prisoner is sent to a special unit for
evaluation. Multidisciplinary teams made up of doctors, social workers, educators,
psychologists, vocational trainers, and security conduct the evaluations and work
with inmates in the program. If the decision is made to admit the person into the
program, then housing is available in one of five units designed to fit particular
needs. One unit consists of dual-diagnosis inmates who have mental retardation
and another psychological disorder. The prisoners housed in this unit also tend
to act aggressively. A second unit houses inmates identified as being particularly
vulnerable to abuse and therefore in need of extra protection. A third unit houses
those inmates who are aggressive or disruptive and have histories of belligerent be-
havior. A fourth unit consists of those who have only mental retardation, and no
other identified problems. A fifth unit is reserved for model prisoners with mental
retardation who are allowed the highest level of privileges. Once an inmate has
been identified and housed, then an individualized habilitation and education plan
is developed by the treatment team. This plan emphasizes four areas: (1) habili-
tation, which includes academic, vocational, and social skills; (2) social support,
which includes counseling by psychologists and trained correctional officers who
work as case managers; (3) institutional security; and (4) continuity of treatment,
which prepares the inmate for the outside world when his or her release date ap-
proaches.
When an inmate is released from prison, he or she may still require special ser-
vices. Therefore, an Ohio county has developed a Mentally Retarded Offender
(MRO) Unit in their probation department (Bowker & Schweid, 1992). The cri-
terion for being assigned to this unit is a score of 75 or lower on the Wechsler Adult
Intelligence Scale, which must be administered by a licensed psychologist. This unit
is run on a case management model where the probationer receives individualized
services determined by the probation officer, the clinical director of the MRO
unit, and others as deemed necessary. The supervision levels for these probationers
range from "super-high," which means contact with the probation officer once a
week, to "extended," which means only monthly contacts via mail with the pro-
bation officer. A probation officer working in this unit generally carries a caseload