Justice in Review: New Trends in State Sentencing and Corrections 2014-2015

In 2014 and 2015, 46 states enacted at least 201 bills, executive orders, and ballot initiatives to reform at least one aspect of their sentencing and corrections systems. In conducting this review of state criminal justice reforms, Vera found that most of the policy changes focused on three areas: creating or expanding opportunities to divert people away from the criminal justice system; reducing prison populations by enacting sentencing reform, expanding opportunities for early release from prison, and reducing the number of people admitted to prison for violating the terms of their community supervision; and supporting reentry into the community from prison. By providing concise summaries of representative reforms in each of these areas, this report serves as a practical guide for other state and federal policymakers looking to affect similar changes in criminal justice policy

The Benefits of Shifting from a Punitive Justice System to One that is Mental Health Aware

Since the 1950’s there has been an increasingly large population of individuals suffering from psychological disorders within the United States criminal justice system. Many psychiatrists and psychologists attribute this rising population to deinstitutionalization, a period in which psychiatric hospitals drastically reduced the number of patients they would serve. As a result, a larger amount of persons suffering from psychological disorders were released into society, where their symptoms are sometimes misinterpreted and criminalized, thus involving the criminal justice system. In response to this growing population the criminal justice system has begun to implement several methods for handling individuals suffering from psychological disorders. In this paper, I will assess the benefits of the criminal justice system shifting away from a purely punitive approach towards one that is mentally health aware. In order to accomplish this I will be examining the various methods the criminal justice system has begun to apply, such as mental health courts, treatment programs within the prison system, jail diversion programs, and the array treatment referral programs for post incarceration. This analysis involves the perceived success from the vantage points of the criminal justice system, the mental health experts involved, and the individual participants, as well as statistical evidence such as recidivism rates, improvement in behavior and symptoms, and improvements in quality of life. Finally, I propose a combination of the presented programs that provide the most beneficial care and outcomes, in the hopes that federal policy will make the necessary changes to beneficially serve individuals suffering from psychological disorders

First Do No Harm: Advancing Public Health In Policing Practices

This report contains recommendations on how community health providers and police can work together to promote access to health services for marginalized populations often caught up in the criminal justice system -- people who live in poverty, use drugs, or live with mental illness -- while reducing needless and expensive cycles of arrest and incarceration. It provides practical strategies for incorporating principles of harm reduction -- which aims to remedy the negative effects of drug use and other high-risk behaviors, even when people are not ready or willing to give up the behavior -- and health promotion into policing practices. The report is the latest in a series from Vera's Justice Reform for Healthy Communities Initiative, which aims to improve the health and well-being of the individuals and communities most affected by mass incarceration. At the center of these communities are the millions of medically vulnerable and socially marginalized people who cycle through the criminal justice system each year instead of receiving the care they need, often due to being arrested on minor offenses such as drug possession, loitering, or public intoxication

Interagency collaboration models for people with mental ill health in contact with the police: a systematic scoping review

Objective: To identify existing evidence on inter-agency collaboration between law enforcement, emergency services, statutory services and third sector agencies regarding people with mental ill-health. Design: Systematic scoping review. Scoping reviews map particular research areas to identify research gaps. Data sources and eligibility: ASSIA, CENTRAL, the Cochrane Library databases, Criminal Justice Abstracts, ERIC, Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PROSPERO and Social Care Online and Social Sciences Citation Index, were searched up to 2017, as were grey literature and hand searches. Eligible articles were empirical evaluations or descriptions of models of inter-agency collaboration between the police and other agencies. Study appraisal and synthesis: Screening and data extraction were undertaken independently by two researchers. Arksey’s framework was used to collate and map included studies. Results: One hundred and twenty-five studies were included. The majority of articles were of descriptions of models (28%), mixed methods evaluations of models (18%) and single service evaluations (14%). The most frequently reported outcomes (52%) were ‘organisational or service level outcomes’ (e.g. arrest rates). Most articles (53%) focused on adults with mental ill-health, whilst others focused on adult offenders with mental ill-health (17.4%). Thirteen models of inter-agency collaboration were described, each involving between 2-13 agencies. Frequently reported models were ‘pre-arrest diversion’ of people with mental ill-health (34%), ‘co-response’ involving joint response by police officers paired with mental health professionals (28.6%) and ‘jail diversion’ following arrest (23.8%). Conclusions: We identified 13 different inter-agency collaboration models catering for a range of mental health related interactions. All but one of these models involved the police and mental health services or professionals. Several models have sufficient literature to warrant full systematic reviews of their effectiveness, while others need robust evaluation, by RCT where appropriate. Future evaluations should focus on health related outcomes and the impact on key stakeholders

When Political Will Is Not Enough: Jails, Communities, and Persons With Mental Health Disorders

This article describes a project that generated the recommendations of a panel of experts regarding the jail as a venue for the delivery of behavioral health care services. The project was a component of the MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge initiative, which seeks to address over-incarceration by changing the way jails are conceptualized and used. The recommendations were grounded largely in the sequential intercept model that rests on two core principles: minimize the inappropriate penetration of persons with mental illness into the criminal justice system and recognize that the community is the unit of analysis to address criminal justice–mental health problems successfully. Other topics presented in the context of the initiative included bringing the community to scale, jail diversion, the limits of jail responsibility, and the Affordable Care Act’s role in providing insurance coverage for detainees

Incarceration's Front Door: The Misuse of Jails in America

Local jails, which exist in nearly every town and city in America, are built to hold people deemed too dangerous to release pending trial or at high risk of flight. This, however, is no longer primarily what jails do or whom they hold, as people too poor to post bail languish there and racial disparities disproportionately impact communities of color. This report reviews existing research and data to take a deeper look at our nation's misuse of local jails and to determine how we arrived at this point. It also highlights jurisdictions that have taken steps to mitigate negative consequences, all with the aim of informing local policymakers and their constituents who are interested in reducing recidivism, improving public safety, and promoting stronger, healthier communities

Policing Persons with Mental Illness in Georgia: Elucidating Perceptions of the Mental Health System

The criminal justice and mental health systems increasingly overlap as persons with mental illness (PMI) are disproportionately present throughout components of the criminal justice system, a concern to mental health and criminal justice professionals alike. In response, various initiatives (aimed across components of the criminal justice system) have been developed and implemented as a means of combating this overrepresentation. The following research will focus on one specialized police-based initiative, the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT), which aims to train police how to recognize mental illness, de-escalate persons in crisis, and to seek treatment-based alternatives to arrest, when appropriate (Schwarzfeld, Reuland, & Plotkin, 2008). Alternatives to arrest consist of various community-based mental health services such as public hospitals (some of which are designated as emergency receiving facilities, or ERFs) or private clinics. While the components of CIT training likely influence officers in unique ways, research has yet to empirically examine how CIT influences police perception, behavior or the incidence of referrals to mental health treatment. As an initial step, this research assessed the attitudes police have regarding the hospital and mental health system within their district. Specifically, this research provides a basic understanding of how police regard their local hospitals and mental health facilities that are posited as available alternatives to arrest, and help identify the role CIT plays in shaping these attitudes. This study found almost no significant difference in the attitudes CIT-trained officers had towards district ERF and the local mental health system as compared to non-CIT officers. Only in one of the six departments studied was there a significant difference between the attitudes of CIT-officers and non-CIT officers; with the non-CIT officers actually having more positive attitudes about their local mental health system than CIT-officers. The six departments studied had nearly similar attitudes of their mental health resources, which would barely be considered passing on a standard grading scale. While officers in this study do not have very positive attitudes towards the ERF they use to transport PMI or their districts’ mental health system, these attitudes may in fact be more positive than many police departments without any specialized approach or initiative. The significance and policy implications of these attitudes are discussed at length, as these findings speak to the need for increased attention by both the mental health and criminal justice systems. Recommendations for future research, including expanding this study to rural departments or agencies with no connection to CIT, are also outlined

Understanding diversion programmes as an intervention for women with mental health issues: A realist review

Purpose: Women in prisons are known to suffer with more mental health difficulties and many experience challenges prior to incarceration. Diversion programmes are initiatives designed to divert people with pre-existing mental illness from the criminal justice system into mental health services. The variability of effectiveness of interventions makes realist approaches particularly appropriate for diversion programmes, and this paper presents the first realist review to be undertaken across the breadth of this topic. This realist review aimed to explain the successes, failures and partial successes of these programmes as an intervention to improve the outcomes of women offenders with mental health issues.// Methods: We conducted a realist review of published literature explaining the impact of diversion programmes on participants with mental health issues. Consultations with six specialists in the field were conducted to validate the principles and hypotheses about key dynamics for effective programmes. // Results: The review included 69 articles. We identified four essential principles, developed through thematic groupings of context-mechanism-outcome configurations, to articulate key drivers of the effectiveness of diversion programmes: coordination between services; development and maintenance of relationships; addressing major risk factors; and stabilisation through diversion programmes. // Conclusions: The behaviour of women offenders is driven by need, and the complex needs of this group require individualised plans that incorporate relationships as vehicles for support and change. Although there is a role for gender-specific interventions, it is not fully understood and further research is required. Implications for future interventions are discussed

The Impact of a Mental Health Court on Participants: The Professional’s Perspective

People with mental illness do not receive the services they need while incarcerated. This leads to a revolving door where mentally ill inmates are released from custody no better off than they were when they went in and they frequently reoffend, putting them back in the criminal justice system. One alternative to the traditional criminal courts is mental health courts, diversion programs that steer offenders away from incarceration. They seek to reduce recidivism by connecting mentally ill offenders with community services and bettering the lives of the participants. This research examined one specific mental health court. Interviews were conducted with various professionals working at the court to determine the impact of this program on participants. There were many major findings from this research. First, the professionals felt there were many benefits for participants that come from participation in the mental health court. Second, the professionals felt the community benefited from increased safety and reduced recidivism. Third, the professionals thought that the biggest challenge for participants in the mental health court was the amount of work involved in participation. Finally, the professionals felt that the mental health court would benefit from increased resources