Annotated Bibliographies

McAfee, J.K., & Gural, M. (1988). Individuals with mental retardation and the criminal justice system: The view from states’ attorneys general. Mental Retardation, 26 (1), 5-12.

Fifty-four attorney generals were survey regarding the treatment of people with mental retardation who were accused of a crime. The survey probed information in three areas: identification, protection before and during trial, and protection and services a fter conviction and during imprisonment. The responses revealed problems with all three areas. It appears there are no systematic, comprehensive procedures in place to safeguard the rights of people with mental retardation; this was true for all respondin g states. Specific difficulties that have been identified in the literature are discussed in the article. The authors indicate that progress has been small, mostly informal, and isolated in a few states. They also note that the high return rate of the sur veys (46 usable surveys were returned) suggests that states’ attorney generals are interested in addressing the problem.