A NATIONAL SURVEY OF HOSPITAL-BASED AND COMMUNITY-BASED APPROACHES TOPRETRIAL MENTAL-HEALTH EVALUATIONS

To document the scope of recent trends in performing pretrial mental h ealth evaluations, telephone interviews were conducted with 157 author ities in 50 states and the District of Columbia, These authorities inc luded forensic mental health program directors and forensic clinical p rofessionals, In ail states, evaluations were made on an outpatient ba sis to some extent, and 45 states used inpatient evaluations, However, only ten states relied primarily on inpatient pretrial evaluations, g enerally in facilities with statewide catchment areas, A total of 32 s tates relied primarily on outpatient evaluations, generally conducted by providers with regional or local catchment areas.