The American journal of psychiatry
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The author evaluated psychiatric care in three U. S. prison systems. ⋯ Psychiatrists should guard against prescribing unnecessary medications, particularly minor tranquilizers and sedatives, and should be concerned with prison conditions conductive to mental illness, particularly overcrowding, abuses of solitary confinement, and inadequate programs for inmates who are mentally disturbed but not overtly psychotic. The author recommends minimum staffing standards and suggests considering the transfer of mentally ill inmates to appropriate psychiatric hospitals outside the prison system.