Describing and Evaluating Jail Diversion Services for Persons With Serious Mental Illness

Draine, Jeffrey; Solomon, Phyllis

doi:10.1176/ps.50.1.56

Cited by 120 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…It may be that some criminal conduct committed by persons with mental illness is not the result of the mental illness (Draine, Salzer, Culhane, & Hadley, 2002;Hiday, 1999;Hiday, Swanson, Swartz, Borum, & Wagner, 2001;Mears, 2004). There is no evidence to support the idea that exempting persons who are not acutely symptomatic at the time of arrest from accountability to the criminal justice system is beneficial to the individuals or to the community (Draine & Solomon, 1999). This is not to say that mental illness should not be taken into account in sentencing, or in mitigation of circumstances, but rather to assert that the integrity of the system of laws depends on only those persons who are not responsible for their conduct, being relieved of liability.…”

Section: Criminal Responsibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating the criminal justice system into mental health service delivery: the worcester diversion experience

Grudzinskas

Clayfield

Roy-Bujnowski

et al. 2005

Behavioral Sci & The Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The substantial number of persons with mental illness encountered in many sectors of the criminal justice system has spurred actors from various agencies within that system to take actions aimed at reducing the growth of this population. These actions have included the development of specialty police units, jail diversion programs, and other mechanisms for channeling persons with mental illness out of the criminal justice system and into mental health treatment. The courts, too, have become involved in this effort with the recent development of the "mental health court," the latest of the "specialty" or "problem solving courts." These courts have not been without their critics, however, nor are they the only feasible approach to court-based diversion. This paper identifies and explores a range of options for structuring the relationship between criminal courts and local mental health systems. Beginning with a discussion of the rationale motivating the development of mental health courts, two alternatives to this specialty court model are discussed. One involves judges dealing with defendants having mental illness and substance abuse on a case-by-case basis. The other takes advantages of linkages that may already exist between most courts and the mental health providers who conduct their forensic assessments, expanding the role of these providers to serve as boundary spanners between courts and the components of local mental health systems. Regardless of the model adopted, however, appropriate linkages must exist between the courts and relevant providers. A case study is provided that demonstrates how the status of a locale's linkages can be evaluated and how the information derived from such evaluation can be used to improve the linkages between police, courts, and health and human services agencies.

show abstract

Section: Criminal Responsibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating the criminal justice system into mental health service delivery: the worcester diversion experience

Grudzinskas

Clayfield

Roy-Bujnowski

et al. 2005

Behavioral Sci & The Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Criminal justice diversion is one such policy response (Desai, 2003;Draine & Solomon, 1999;Steadman, Barbera, & Dennis, 1994). To varying degrees, these programs move individuals with mental illness out of the criminal justice system, and into the mental health system for treatment (Steadman et al, 1994;Draine & Solomon, 1999).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To varying degrees, these programs move individuals with mental illness out of the criminal justice system, and into the mental health system for treatment (Steadman et al, 1994;Draine & Solomon, 1999). Promotions of these interventions usually contain some variant of the argument that treatment in the mental health system is more appropriate for persons with mental illness than accountability in the criminal justice system.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The police activities associated with pre-booking diversion are very closely linked with the conventional police task of responding to psychiatric crises. The overlap of the police functions of crisis response and arrest, in addition to complicating police work (Borum, Dean, Steadman, & Morrissey, 1998;Watson, Corrigan, & Ottati, 2004), can complicate the conceptualization and evaluation of pre-booking diversion programs (Draine & Solomon, 1999). Pre-booking diversion models may serve to expand control in unanticipated directions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

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

Draine

Blank

Kottsieper³

et al. 2005

Behavioral Sci & The Law

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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.

show abstract

“…44 No single approach has emerged with sufficient evidence that it is considered more effective than any of the other models. 45 Furthermore, the objectives of jail diversion programs, whether based in law enforcement, courts, or jails, and specialty mental health reentry programs are different. The commission identified a number of efforts at diverting people with mental illness from the criminal justice system into the mental health system and recommended that they be expanded.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

‘How Do You Pay Your Rent?’ Social Policies And The President’s Mental Health Commission

Goldman¹

2003

Health Affairs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Mental health policy involves broad social policies related to housing, education, work disability and rehabilitation, welfare, and criminal justice. The modern era of community care has moved patients, clinicians, and policymakers from closed institutions into the mainstream of society and its health and human service systems. The importance of knowing about the broad array of human services and their policies is reflected in the deliberations and policy recommendations of the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. It is hoped that these recommendations will provide a roadmap for further change to enable people affected by severe mental illness "to live, learn, work, and participate fully in their communities."T h e p r e s i d e n t 's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health has made key recommendations related to welfare, education, social security, labor, housing, and criminal justice policy. It also has made recommendations related to mainstream health programs, such as Medicaid, Medicare, and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), reflecting the importance of these programs and the participation of those agencies on the commission. In addition to the expected commissioners from the health and mental health fields from both inside and outside government, the commission had ex officio representation from the Departments of Education, Labor, and Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 1 The commission's interim report hinted at the reasons for this broad social policy agenda when it focused on a fragmented mental health system "in shambles," disconnected from the many agencies on which people with mental illness depend for service and support.2 Both the interim and final reports cite a series of human and social problems associated with mental illness: homelessness, unemployment and work disability, school failure, minor crime, and incarceration. The final report makes recommendations to address these areas.This Perspective was written in response to the paper by Margarita Alegría and her colleagues, which provides details on several specific mainstream social programs and their relationship to mental health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities. Here I describe the interest of the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health in some of the same social policies, and some related ones. Whereas the Alegría paper concerns the full range of mental health problems in ethnic minority populations, I focus on adults and children with severe and persistent mental disor-P e r s p e c t i v e : P u b l i c P o l i c i e s ders. I do not, however, focus on the commission's recommendations that pertain to the health and mental health systems and to more traditional considerations of treatment for mental illness.My own exposure to these matters originates with my earliest clinical experiences as a psychiatrist. I learned to ask each patient, "How do you pay your rent?" It was a simple question, but the answer was always revealing. Over time, in an effort to assist patients, I learned ...

show abstract

Describing and Evaluating Jail Diversion Services for Persons With Serious Mental Illness

Cited by 120 publications

References 18 publications

Integrating the criminal justice system into mental health service delivery: the worcester diversion experience

Integrating the criminal justice system into mental health service delivery: the worcester diversion experience

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

‘How Do You Pay Your Rent?’ Social Policies And The President’s Mental Health Commission

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About