Research has indicated that a substantial portion of the corrections population has serious mental illness problems. Criminal justice practitioners who lack mental health training are often put in the position of referring and managing SMI offenders. The authors begin by discussing the prevalence of persons with SMI in corrections facilities and in community correction programs across the United States. The use of valid and reliable screening tools is recommended as an important first step in providing the appropriate services to offenders with SMI. Two approaches to simplifying standardized screening procedures for psychiatric disorders are discussed, one of which is a brief screening instrument that only identifies the few most common and clinically severe disorders while the other is an instrument that de-emphasizes diagnosis and focuses instead on symptom severity and level of impairment. Two SMI screening tools for use with corrections populations are reviewed: the K6/K10 and the Brief Jail Mental Health Screen (BJMHS). The K6 is recommended for use with corrections populations while the BJMHS is recommended as a viable option after it has been further refined to improve its specificity with female offenders. Further validation studies are needed for both assessment tools. References