In the 1980 case of Vitek v. Jones, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the transfer of an inmate to a mental hospital requires an administrative hearing to determine whether the transfer is appropriate. This decision was made, however, without the benefit of any descriptive and analytic account of the empirical context in which decisions are made to transfer prisoners to mental hospitals. To fill this informational gap, this study collected statistical data on the types of transfers that occurred in six States, the nature of the facilities to which prisoners were transferred, and the perceptions of the staff at the prisons and mental hospitals involved in the transfer of prisoners. The study concluded that Vitek must be read broadly as applying to the transfer of prisoners to mental health facilities operated by departments of corrections and not just to transfers to hospitals operated by departments of mental health. Another study conclusion is that while Vitek may have a beneficial impact in reducing the 'overidentification' of inmates as mentally ill, it leaves unresolved what is perceived by the staff at both prisons and transfer facilities as a much more serious problem: the failure to treat those inmates who are actually mentally disordered and in need of hospitalization but who remain unidentified in the prison population. Tabular data and 36 footnotes are provided.