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Imprisonment of people with mental illness has been on the rise. Transitioning people from prison to community is important to reduce recidivism to both prison and psychiatric hospitalization. To better serve these individuals, more programming and supports need to be put in place to ensure they have the tools they need to succeed. Two focus groups were conducted at a mandated program serving individuals recently released from incarceration with a mental illness diagnosis. The purpose was to gather their opinions about the transition process to the community and what barriers they faced. The participants discussed lack of housing, inaccessibility to benefits, lack of family support, and ineffective mental health treatment in prisons as a gap in the current system. They suggested providing more affordable housing, creating an easier system for turning on benefits, and improving the treatment in prisons through access to therapist regularly. The state of Connecticut has made some effort to improve re-entry for mentally ill offenders but speaking to those involved in the system, there is still much to developed. Money needs to be spent toward mental health treatment services and housing programs to reduce likelihood of recidivism and create a positive environment for ex-offenders.
This book tackles the important issue of the effects of co-occurring substance abuse and mental health disorders on criminal offenders as they make the transition from incarceration back into society. It provides estimates of the prevalence of these disorders among criminal justice populations, and examines the various screening and assessment instruments used to diagnose co-occurring disorders. The volume further offers an inside look at an experimental community reentry program at a jail facility and uncovers how co-occurring disorders jeopardize the transition back into the community for offenders who suffer from them. It incorporates a historical account of the reentry issue to show how the current reentry problem is rooted in criminal justice policies dating back to the 1980s. As such, the text will be a valuable resource for criminal justice and criminology students, as well as practitioners in the corrections field, particularly those who work with inmates or released individuals with substance abuse and mental health disorders.
Over the past four decades, the rate of incarceration in the United States has skyrocketed to unprecedented heights, both historically and in comparison to that of other developed nations. At far higher rates than the general population, those in or entering U.S. jails and prisons are prone to many health problems. This is a problem not just for them, but also for the communities from which they come and to which, in nearly all cases, they will return. Health and Incarceration is the summary of a workshop jointly sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences(NAS) Committee on Law and Justice and the Institute of Medicine(IOM) Board on Health and Select Populations in December 2012. Academics, practitioners, state officials, and nongovernmental organization representatives from the fields of healthcare, prisoner advocacy, and corrections reviewed what is known about these health issues and what appear to be the best opportunities to improve healthcare for those who are now or will be incarcerated. The workshop was designed as a roundtable with brief presentations from 16 experts and time for group discussion. Health and Incarceration reviews what is known about the health of incarcerated individuals, the healthcare they receive, and effects of incarceration on public health. This report identifies opportunities to improve healthcare for these populations and provides a platform for visions of how the world of incarceration health can be a better place.
Examines the policy of deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill and what can be done about it.
Numerous reports indicate that individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. This review focuses on offenders with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, or major depression. Prevalence estimates of SMI among incarcerated adults range from 15 percent to 25 percent. These estimates are three to five times as high as in the general population, in which the prevalence of SMI ranges from 5 percent to 8 percent. Research conducted in the United States found that between 28 percent and 52 percent of those with SMI have been arrested at least once. This review is about interventions provided to offenders with SMI who are detained in a jail, prison, or forensic hospital or who are transitioning from one of these settings back to the community. This is an especially vulnerable population because "jails and prisons have cultures that often lead to maladaptive behaviors in offenders with SMI that subsequently undermine treatment" both in and out of incarceration settings. Jails house inmates who are awaiting adjudication of their cases or who are serving short-term sentences (less than 1 year) for minor offenses, prisons house inmates convicted of more serious crimes for longer durations, and forensic hospitals house offenders for varying lengths of time. Forensic hospitals are often specialized units within State-run psychiatric hospitals. Transitional interventions are usually initiated within 3 months of an inmate's release date and continue once he or she is back in the community (e.g., home/family, halfway house). Programs designed to prevent or minimize incarceration, such as mobile crisis intervention teams or other interventions delivered at the point of contact with the police, are beyond the scope of this report. Also beyond the scope of this report are court-ordered, involuntary treatments intended to restore competency to stand trial and other postbooking strategies, such as mental health courts, designed to divert offenders with SMI to a treatment environment in lieu of incarceration. This report focuses on the comparative effectiveness of interventions provided to offenders with SMI (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, or major depression), with or without a co-occurring substance use disorder, during incarceration in jail, prison, or forensic hospital or during transition from incarceration in these settings to the community. An important goal of this review is to describe incarceration-based and incarceration-to-community transitional interventions in a manner that will allow treatment providers to replicate effective treatments and to identify gaps in the scientific literature for future research in the field. This report addresses the following Key Questions (KQs):Key Question 1. What is the comparative effectiveness of interventions applied within a jail, prison, or forensic hospital setting for adults with SMI (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, or major depression) with or without a co-occurring alcohol/substance abuse diagnosis? Is there a difference in the comparative effectiveness of interventions based on the setting (jail, prison, forensic hospital) in which the interventions are provided? Key Question 2. What is the comparative effectiveness of incarceration-to-community transitional interventions for adults with SMI (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, or major depression) with or without a co-occurring alcohol/substance abuse diagnosis? Is there a difference in the comparative effectiveness of interventions based on the setting (jail to community, prison to community, forensic hospital to community) in which the interventions are provided?
This book is about the need for social reform programs along with the Department of Corrections to gain more appropriate and more satisfying treatments for affected individuals. Studies have shown that more inmates, upon release from incarceration, have little to no resources that help with assistance of mental health treatment, employment, housing, and education. Redirecting and modifying upon release would help the inmate not only with what’s out in the community to face but also in helping to ease the tension of it. Programs and access to mental health resources—medication, continuous counsel, skill-building, and everyday living skills—prove to make a major positive impact on one’s transition. Active mental health treatment deemed by the inmate’s release team should proactively be a team consensus for the inmate on a long-term basis to redirect the thoughts of recidivism. With all involved, a power of guidance would leave one feeling as though they have a strong sense of support. I believe that by implementing these measures at the beginning of juvenile delinquency, the problems we face in America would result to a lesser number of incarcerations. It is a problem that starts in the adolescent years, not in adulthood. Proper and early treatment of mental illness, diagnosis, and treatments would make a world of difference in the lives of such population. Proper and more guided involvement would lessen thoughts of crime.
The number of individuals with severe mental illness in the criminal justice system is shockingly high. However, there is a wealth of research that shows that the traditional incarceration model is not effective with this population, and that many of these individuals can be helped in the community at less cost without increased risk to public safety by addressing their risk-relevant needs and improving their opportunities for recovery. As a result, during the last decade there has been an increasing interest in community-based alternatives to incarceration for individuals with severe mental illness. The Sequential Intercept Model and Criminal Justice offers an overview of the recent changes in correctional policy and practice that reflect an increased focus on community-based alternatives for offenders. Developed by Drs. Mark Munetz and Patricia Griffin, the Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) identifies five conceptual points at which standard criminal processing can be interrupted to offer community-based alternatives: (1) law enforcement/emergency services; (2) initial detention/initial court hearings; (3) jails/courts; (4) re-entry; and (5) community corrections/support. This volume describes the SIM in detail and reviews empirical evidence for each of its five points of interception. Chapters focus on its implementation, starting with an analysis of the national and state-level initiatives, then addressing specific challenges. A final section suggests how the SIM might be applied successfully to other populations (e.g., veterans, juveniles, and those with developmental disabilities). This volume will appeal to policy makers who are considering community-based alternatives, practitioners who carry out these changes, and program evaluators who seek to document the impact of such changes.
Correctional Mental Health is a broad-based, balanced guide for students who are learning to treat criminal offenders in a correctional mental health practice. Featuring a wide selection of readings, this edited text offers a thorough grounding in theory, current research, professional practice, and clinical experience. It emphasizes a biopsychosocial approach to caring for the estimated 20% of all U.S. prisoners who have a serious mental disorder. Providing a balance between theoretical and practical perspectives throughout, the text also provides readers with a big-picture framework for assessing current correctional mental health and criminal justice issues, offering clear strategies for addressing these challenges.
An Innovative New Text That Addresses a Critical Issue Nearly 2,000 people are released from prison every day in the United States, many of whom face significant barriers to re-entry into the civilian population. Within three years, two-thirds of them will be rearrested, and nearly half will return to prison for a new crime or parole violation. Offender Reentry: Rethinking Criminology and Criminal Justice is the first text of its kind to address this major issue in criminology and criminal justice. Bringing together cutting-edge and never-before-published research, and authored by the most critically recognized experts in the field, this text offers students extraordinary insight into the experiences of both offenders in reentry and the practitioners who work within the legal system. Real-world stories from criminal justice professionals and offenders themselves are integrated with up-to-the minute research and thought-provoking analysis. Student-oriented pedagogical features, including critical-thinking and discussion questions for every chapter, push students to engage deeply with the text and synthesize their own innovative solutions to contemporary problems. The text addresses all of the societal factors that affect offender reentry, as well as the political and economic effects on the community and issues of public safety. Ideally suited for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in criminal justice and criminology, Offender Reentry is an invaluable new addition to the field.
Public Health Behind Bars From Prisons to Communities examines the burden of illness in the growing prison population, and analyzes the impact on public health as prisoners are released. This book makes a timely case for correctional health care that is humane for those incarcerated and beneficial to the communities they reenter.