Terry Kupers M.D., a psychiatrist and professor at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, is cochair of the Committee
on the Mentally Ill Behind Bars of the American Association of Community Psychiatrists. He has served as an expert
witness in more than a dozen class action lawsuits concerning the conditions of confinement and the adequacy of
mental health services in jails and prisons. Kupers has also served as a consultant to the Civil Rights Division
of the U.S. Department of Justice and to Human Rights Watch.
Review
"A passionately argued and brilliantly written wake-up call to America about the myriad ways our penal
systems brutalize our entire culture. Dr. Kupers not only diagnoses the problem, he also offers a set of solutions.
I hope this book will be read by all concerned citizens and voters, for it conveys truths that are vitally important
to all of us."
--James Gilligan, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and author of Violence: Reflections on a
National Epidemic
"A chilling picture of how American prisons have become among the most barbaric in the world driving petty
offenders and dangerous people alike into madness. We must consider the madness of a public policy that routinely
turns nonviolent offenders into dangerous misfits who threaten our safety when released."
--Joseph D. McNamara, research fellow, the Hoover Institution, Stanford University and retired police chief,
San Jose, California
"Dr. Kupers reminds us that cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of inmates-particularly those who are
mentally ill-violates their rights, betrays our national commitment to decency, and jeopardizes the safety of our
communities. A splendid book."
--Jamie Fellner, associate counsel, Human Rights Watch
"Prison Madness reveals the disturbing realities of prisons and jails as places of coerced refuge for poor
and mentally disordered people. With this powerful and provocative analysis of the intersecting crises in the public
mental health and prison systems, Terry Kupers shows us how to contest the racism and the criminalization of poverty
that have helped to produce these dangerous dilemmas."
--Angela Y. Davis, professor, University of California, Santa Cruz
" . . . Kupers had free access and unfettered contacts that few outsiders are afforded, and has credibility
that few outsiders can acquire."
--Hans Toch, from the Foreword
"Prison Madness--with its cogent analysis of our correctional system and the mental health crisis within
it--can serve as a much-needed beacon."
--Readings: A Journal of Reviews and Commentary in Mental Health
Submitted by Publisher, March, 2001
Summary
Our correctional facilities have become inadequate and ill-prepared psychiatric wards-the largest purveyors
of mental health services in the United States today. This country's correctional system houses well over a quarter
of a million men and women who require mental health treatment. An unprecedented number of prisoners enter the
system already in need of psychiatric attention, and countless others suffer emotional breakdowns inside as a result
of the brutal, cruel, and inhumane treatment experienced behind bars.
In prison, these men and women are subjected to ridicule, abuse, and punitive policies that worsen their psychiatric
disorders and exacerbate an already explosive situation. Without adequate treatment, many wind up in punitive solitary
confinement or subjecting themselves to a self-imposed isolation in their own cells-where their condition deteriorates.
The result is a major hazard, not only to the prison population and their caretakers, but once released, these
brutalized and broken individuals constitute a real and documented threat to our communities.
Terry Kupers, an expert in the field of forensic psychiatry, not only exposes the sad fact that prisons, by
design, fail miserably to correct, he also offers a prescription, A CALL TO ACTION for immediate prison reform.
Kupers outlines successful programs throughout the United States and the world and makes practical recommendations,
including guidelines for the upgrade and revitalization of rehabilitation programs and the development of comprehensive
mental health services.
Kupers' passionate plea will empower judges, lawmakers, mental health practitioners, and citizens to use their
influence to put an end to prison crowding and STOP sending nonviolent and mentally disordered felons onto prison
yards with murderers and rapists. Prison Madness signals a growing movement intent on exposing current prison policies
and the treatment of mentally disordered prisoners as cruel and unusual punishment.
