Challenges to Employing Shared Decision Making With Adults Under Community Supervision Who Have a Mental Illness

Abstract

Adults under community corrections supervision and who have a mental illness (MI) are expected to comply with conditions of release which often include involvement with supportive social services. The rates of technical violation, arrest, and incarceration that result from failure to comply with these mandates are exceedingly high. Shared decision making among officer-supervisors and client-supervisees is a promising approach to promote engagement in community corrections services among supervisees who have MI. This paper reviews recent research on shared decision making and identifies three barriers to its implementation in this context: (1) a lack of role clarity, (2) a predilection for risk avoidance, and (3) stigma toward supervisees. Empirically supported recommendations are suggested to aid in overcoming these obstacles, facilitate shared decision making, and promote recovery among this population: (1) unification of supervisor rehabilitative and public safety roles, (2) maximizing opportunities for self-determination through low-stakes events and/or enhancement of supervisee strengths and capabilities, and (3) supervisor training in principles of mental health recovery.

The bridging program for social reinsertion. Early detection of people with serious mental illness who are prosecuted in Spain

“…Serious mental illness is overrepresented among people who are sentenced to alternative sentences and security measures to prison (Van Deinse et al, 2019; Matejkowski, 2021; Louden and Skeem, 2013; Kim and Kim, 2017). These sentences constitute the majority of sentences, accounting for 60% of all sentences in Spain (with custodial sentences only constituting XX%).…”

The Health and Health Needs of People under Community Supervision

“…Community supervision agencies routinely engage in practices that are generally considered to be unethical and against medical standards of care. For example, individuals on community supervision can be coerced under threat of revocation to take psychiatric medications (Matejkowski 2021; Morris 2021); people can be incarcerated for substance use, exposing them to additional harms of imprisonment and discontinuity of medical care (Hoffman 2018); and people are prohibited from taking medications for opioid use disorder (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 2019b), despite their effectiveness in preventing overdose and even future criminal justice involvement.…”