Correctional policy for offenders with mental illness: Creating a new paradigm for recidivism reduction.

Skeem, Jennifer L.; Manchak, Sarah M.; Peterson, Jillian K.

doi:10.1007/s10979-010-9223-7

Cited by 342 publications

(352 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…Broad-based benefits like these might be expected to reduce arrests. On the other hand, most mental health interventions aim to reduce symptoms and associated impairments and do not directly target factors leading to arrests of people with mental illnesses (6). Also, outpatient commitment involves heightened surveillance that could elevate the chance of being apprehended.…”

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confidence: 99%

Arrest Outcomes Associated With Outpatient Commitment in New York State

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2011

Psychiatric Services

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Objective-This study examined whether assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) under New York's "Kendra's Law" is associated with reduced arrests for violent and nonviolent offenses.Methods-Arrest records of 183 study participants attending outpatient clinics in New York City, 86 of whom were ever and 97 of whom were never assigned to AOT, were compiled to yield 16,890 months of observation. For each month the data indicated whether an arrest did or did not occur and whether a participant was or was not assigned to AOT. Generalized estimating equations and fixed-effects analyses were used to compare arrest rates within different periods (before, during or shortly after, and more than six months after) for those ever assigned and between the ever-and never-assigned groups.Results-For those who received AOT, the odds of any arrest were 2.66 times greater (p<.01) and the odds of arrest for a violent offense 8.61 times greater (p<.05) before AOT than they were in the period during and shortly after AOT. The group never receiving AOT had nearly double the odds (1.91, p<.05) of arrest compared with the AOT group in the period during and shortly after assignment. Conclusions-Outpatient commitment under Kendra's Law in New YorkState is associated with a reduced risk of arrest. The coercion necessitated by application of the law may forestall, at least for some people, the potentially more potent and consequential coercion they would have experienced in the criminal justice system. DisclosuresThe authors report no competing interests. HHS Public Access Author Manuscript Author ManuscriptAuthor Manuscript Author ManuscriptDetermining whether court-ordered psychiatric outpatient commitment reduces arrest among people with mental illnesses is critically important for multiple reasons. Arrest is a devastating experience for individuals and their families, and its societal costs are enormous (1). Further, given the intense debate about outpatient commitment, it is important to assess whether legally mandated outpatient treatment forestalls the subsequent and even more noxious forms of coercion that arrest brings. This possible trade-off of a milder form of coercion for a more severe one could represent useful information in considering the value of outpatient commitment.New York State established outpatient commitment in 1999 through Mental Health Law 9.60 (known as "Kendra's Law"), under which court-ordered assisted outpatient treatment (AOT) could be mandated for certain individuals with mental illness and a history of multiple hospitalizations or violence toward self or others. Specific legal criteria are required for an assignment to AOT, including a judgment based on a history of treatment noncompliance whereby the individual is considered unlikely to voluntarily adhere to treatment and has a high likelihood of benefiting from mandated treatment. Individuals entering AOT are assigned a case manager and prioritized for enhanced services that include housing and vocational services.There are several reasons why outpati...

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confidence: 99%

Arrest Outcomes Associated With Outpatient Commitment in New York State

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2011

Psychiatric Services

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“…However, the effectiveness of first-generation interventions is questionable. Skeem et al (2011) reviewed studies of first-generation interventions and found no relationship between reduced recidivism and reduced symptoms of SMI. Incarnations of the MHCs vary depending on local laws, resources, institutions, populations and so on.…”

Section: A U T H O R C O P Ymentioning

confidence: 99%

Therapeutic governmentality and biopower in a Canadian mental health court

Nordberg

2015

BioSocieties

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Mental health courts (MHCs) are a response to the structural violence experienced by people with severe mental illness (SMI) involved in the criminal justice system. My ethnographic research of an MHC in urban Canada serves as the foundation for a discussion of court processes that are an example of biopower. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how strategies for intervention in the name of life and health, truth discourses and forms of self-governance operate among criminal justice-involved individuals with SMI. This study reveals the tensions between the intense forensic gaze and invisibility and between treatment strategies that are beneficial for some people with SMI yet ultimately coercive and oppressive. The governance of this population is discussed, as well as what happens to people who fail or refuse to self-govern as the court compels them.

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“…And it is somewhat out of keeping with the more nuanced literature on the relationship between violence and mental disorder. Clearly, there are individual cases where the link is undisputed; but the literature is more hesitant about the generality of the link (Peterson et al 2014;Skeem et al 2011). And Buchanan and Zonana (2009) argue powerfully that psychiatrists ought only to offer possibility explanations to the courts about unusual event and reserve explanatory assertions for more routine or mundane events.…”

Section: Partial Culpability and Causation In R V Clarencementioning

confidence: 99%

Sentencing Mentally Disordered Offenders: Conflicting Objectives, Perilous Decisions and Cognitive Insights

Peay

2015

SSRN Journal

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This paper examines the sentencing of mentally disordered offenders using an analysis of s.45A orders under the Mental Health Act 1983. The paper reviews the legislative context of the orders and the relevant tranche of Court of Appeal decisions, and looks at their use since 1998. It then touches on the literature on the role of heuristics and cognitive errors in decision-making as a vehicle for demonstrating why the courts may find sentencing in these cases peculiarly problematic. The paper concludes that partial culpability may be being used as a mechanism for justifying the imposition of these orders which facilitate the application of more risk-averse thresholds of release and recall; but that partial culpability is such a fluid concept as to introduce elements of incoherence into the disposal of mentally disordered offenders.

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Correctional policy for offenders with mental illness: Creating a new paradigm for recidivism reduction.

Cited by 342 publications

References 82 publications

Arrest Outcomes Associated With Outpatient Commitment in New York State

Arrest Outcomes Associated With Outpatient Commitment in New York State

Therapeutic governmentality and biopower in a Canadian mental health court

Sentencing Mentally Disordered Offenders: Conflicting Objectives, Perilous Decisions and Cognitive Insights

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