Contrasting jail diversion and in‐jail services for mental illness and substance abuse: do they serve the same clients?

Abstract

Baseline data from a study of jail diversion services and in-jail behavioral health services were used to examine the differences in clients served by these two models of responding to people with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse problems in the criminal justice system. Clients of the diversion service had more acute psychiatric symptoms and were more likely to have a diagnosis of psychosis NOS. Clients of the in-jail service were more likely to have been on probation or parole in the past and to have received substance abuse treatment. Different service models may attract and serve different populations of clients. Diversion services may cast a wider net that includes clients who may not have otherwise been involved in forensic services.

Substance Use Disorder Prevalence among Female State Prison Inmates

“…Additionally, research in this area is limited due to various methodological limitations, including the tendency to consider all nonalcohol SUDs as a single drug use disorder category, and/or the failure to definitively distinguish between diagnoses of dependence versus abuse (8,(19)(20)(21)(22)(23). Given substancedependent individuals tend to experience poorer prognosis and treatment outcomes relative to individuals with a substance abuse diagnosis (24)(25)(26), the need to clearly differentiate between diagnoses of dependence versus abuse remains an important goal if authorities aspire to meet the unique SUD treatment needs of incarcerated women.…”

Communicating the principle of ‘treatment instead of punishment’ in Hungary on the basis of an examination of the patients at a drug outpatient clinic

“…Further examples that drug users in worse conditions do not perform as well are available (e.g. Marinelli-Casey et al, 2008 for frequent methamphetamine users; Roll et al, 2005 for intravenous users), and the model unnecessarily broadens the range of those included to those for whom it is not justified, called the 'net widening' effect (Bowers, 2008;Draine, Blank, Kottsieper, & Solomon, 2005;Harrison & Scarpitti, 2002;Kelly et al, 2005). Others bring attention to the effects of 'iatrogenesis', which the legal approach produces among low intensity users TREATMENT INSTEAD OF PUNISHMENT who enter high intensity programmes, and at high cost (Marlowe, 2006).…”

Toward Successful Postbooking Diversion: What Are the Next Steps?

“…Alternatives or additions to current diversion programs include, for example, jail mental health services (55), an increased focus on vocational development (56,57), and other legal mechanisms to reduce the rate of incarceration for people with serious mental illness, such as the insanity defense or involuntary emergency evaluations (58,59). Additional information and better quality of information are needed in a number of areas.…”