Lessons from the Broward County Mental Health Court Evaluation

McGaha, Annette; Boothroyd, Roger A.; Poythress, Norman G.; Petrila, John; Ort, Rhonda

doi:10.1016/s0149-7189(02)00005-8

Cited by 28 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…It has spawned funding initiatives at the state and federal level (Council for State Governments, 2002;Steadman et al, 1999) and has led to the development of a range of new mechanisms operating at the interface of the mental health and criminal justice systems, including various forms of jail diversion mechanisms (Steadman & Naples, 2005;Steadman, Morris & Deane, 1995;Steadman, Barbera, & Dennis, 1994) and, more recently, mental health courts (Griffin, Steadman, & Petrila, 2002;McGaha, Boothroyd, Poythress, Petrila, & Ort, 2002;Steadman, Davidson & Brown 2001;Steadman, Redlich, Griffin, Petrila, & Monahan, 2005;Wolff, 2003). A preliminary reading of the federal legislation discussed at the beginning of this paper suggests that this perspective continues to serve as a foundation upon which to craft federal policy in this area.…”

Section: Testing the Criminalization Constructmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond Criminalization: Toward a Criminologically Informed Framework for Mental Health Policy and Services Research

Fisher

Silver

Wolff

2006

Adm Policy Ment Health

191

121

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The problems posed by persons with mental illness involved with the criminal justice system are vexing ones that have received attention at the local, state and national levels. The conceptual model currently guiding research and social action around these problems is shaped by the "criminalization" perspective and the associated belief that reconnecting individuals with mental health services will by itself reduce risk for arrest. This paper argues that such efforts are necessary but possibly not sufficient to achieve that reduction. Arguing for the need to develop a services research framework that identifies a broader range of risk factors for arrest, we describe three potentially useful criminological frameworks-the "life course," "local life circumstances" and "routine activities" perspectives. Their utility as platforms for research in a population of persons with mental illness is discussed and suggestions are provided with regard to how services research guided by these perspectives might inform the development of community-based services aimed at reducing risk of arrest.

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Section: Testing the Criminalization Constructmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond Criminalization: Toward a Criminologically Informed Framework for Mental Health Policy and Services Research

Fisher

Silver

Wolff

2006

Adm Policy Ment Health

191

121

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“…The US DTC model was exported and transformed for local contexts in Canada, Europe, Australia and beyond. Soon, other versions of the court, specifically MHCs, evolved to serve a different revolving-door population: people with serious mentally health problems (McGaha et al, 2002;Wexler and Winnick, 1996).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…MHCs vary considerably from place to place in terms of differences in mental health law, social services, psychiatric services, funding strategies and even the legal definition of 'mental health court'. Evaluation of MHCs is challenging due to the relative complexity of the processes compared with DTCs and the dynamic, informal environment of the MHC (McGaha et al, 2002) and some report negative recidivism outcomes (Christy et al, 2005;Cosden et al, 2010). The literature relating to Canadian MHCs is not deep.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By the 1990s, concerns emerged in the USA about mental health and substance abuse problems among people entering the criminal justice system (McGaha et al, 2002). Research estimated that the prevalence of mental health and substance abuse issues may have been over 60 per cent among offenders (Ditton, 1999) and recent research in Canada and the USA estimated prevalence rates of 75 and 74 per cent, respectively (CMHA, 2012;James and Glaze, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Liminality and Mental Health Court Diversion: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Offender Experiences: Table 1

Nordberg

2014

Br J Soc Work

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Seriously mentally ill people are a 'revolving-door' population in criminal justice systems where they cycle in and out of courts and jails. In response and consonant with the principles of therapeutic jurisprudence, mental health courts (MHCs) have flourished in North America and Western Europe in attempts to divert this population away from jail and provision them with the social services they require to avoid legal contact. Little research has focused on the perspective of the accused in MHCs and there has been little information about which aspects of the court and diversion processes contribute to therapeutic processes in MHCs. This qualitative study reports the experiences of nine successful graduates of a Canadian MHC. The data were analysed according to the principles of interpretative phenomenological analysis. The marginality of the accused and their liminal experiences in mental health court diversion are discussed. Social workers have a role to play in the success of clients in diversion and the results of this study may influence service delivery.

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“…The evaluation consists of multiple components, including key informant interviews, qualitative data collection about the court process, a prospective study of a sample of clients, and analysis of data from multiple archival sources. Additional details about the design and methodology of the evaluation are available elsewhere (McGaha, Boothroyd, Poythress, Petrila, & Ort, 2002).…”

Section: Evaluation Of the Broward Mental Health Courtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the efficiency and community safety goals of the Broward County Mental Health Court

Christy

Poythress²,

Boothroyd³

et al. 2005

Behavioral Sci & The Law

Self Cite

135

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Mental health courts have developed as one response to persons with mental illness who are involved with the criminal justice system. This study investigated the efficiency and safety goals of one such court in Broward County, FL. Mental health court (MHC) clients spent significantly fewer days in jail for the index arrest associated with study enrollment than a comparison group. MHC clients had similar survival time to re-arrest up to one year after study enrollment. MHC clients did not significantly differ from the comparison group in self-reported aggressive acts over an 8 month follow-up period, while they did self-report significantly fewer acts of violence than the comparison group at the 8 month follow-up. These findings suggest that some of the benefits associated with the MHC reported in prior studies were not achieved at the expense of efficiency and safety.

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Lessons from the Broward County Mental Health Court Evaluation

Cited by 28 publications

References 10 publications

Beyond Criminalization: Toward a Criminologically Informed Framework for Mental Health Policy and Services Research

Beyond Criminalization: Toward a Criminologically Informed Framework for Mental Health Policy and Services Research

Liminality and Mental Health Court Diversion: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Offender Experiences: Table 1

Evaluating the efficiency and community safety goals of the Broward County Mental Health Court

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