Interdisciplinary Preparation and Service Equities as Alternative Strategies for Older Adults in General and Correctional Populations: Should We Care?

This informative book is an update of The Report of the LEAA [Law Enforcement Assistance Administration] Task Force on Women, published in October 1975. It evaluates the 1975 recommendations made on issues that the criminal justice field should examine to ensure that women and girls are treated fairly in the criminal justice system. Female offenders, female crime victims, and female criminal justice professionals remain substantially neglected populations in the criminal and juvenile justice systems. Despite the gains made by women since 1975, current evidence shows that: Although the nature and composition of female offenders have changed, the special needs of the burgeoning adult and juvenile offender populations often remain overlooked; Although assistance to crime victims has improved, the need remains for a firm commitment from the criminal justice and juvenile justice systems to change the way these systems respond to women and girls who have been, or potentially could be, victims of crime; Although opportunities for female criminal justice professionals have improved, gender bias and inequality still exist within the criminal justice field and women's progress through the ranks continues to be slow.

The Welsh criminal justice system: On the jagged edge By R.Jones, R.W.Jones, Cardiff: University of Wales Press. 2022. pp. 292. £24.99 (pbk); £24.99 (ebk). ISBN: 9781786839435; 9781786839442

For the past 40 years, scholars, practitioners, and advocates in the fields of mental health and criminal justice have observed that people with serious mental illness (PSMI) are being criminalized – that is, processed through the criminal justice system when a mental health option would be preferable but unavailable. Criminal justice officials and practitioners have reported that PSMI are being arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced with great frequency and regularity. Similarly, researchers have noted that PSMI are over-represented in institutional and community correctional populations compared with their representation in the general population. This article examines four common issues concerning criminally involved PSMI. The first is the heterogeneity of PSMI, who enter the criminal justice system for different reasons and have varied criminal justice and mental health histories. The second is the contribution of deinstitutionalization to the growing presence of PSMI in jails and prisons. The third is the war on drugs, which has expanded the criminal justice net, sweeping into jails and prisons large numbers of mentally ill with comorbid substance use disorders. The fourth is the effect of mental health treatment on recidivism. The article concludes with recommendations for improving the treatment and care of PSMI in the criminal justice system.

Patterns and Prevalence of Arrest in a Statewide Cohort of Mental Health Care Consumers

Toward Successful Postbooking Diversion: What Are the Next Steps?

Part IV - Potential Employment Options with a Master’s or Doctoral Degree in Criminology or Criminal Justice

Gender Differences in Police Encounters Among Persons With and Without Serious Mental Illness

This study examined the rates, patterns, and types of police contacts among men and women with and without serious mental illness. Data on type of contact, type and number of offenses, dispositions, and repeat offenses were extracted from an administrative database of all police encounters in a midsized Canadian city over a six-year period (N=767,365). Men and women with serious mental illness represented, respectively, .5% and .4% of men and women who had at least one contact with the police; however, they were involved in 3.2% and 3.0% of all interactions, respectively. Persons with mental illness were more likely than those without mental illness to be in contact with police as suspected offenders, to have a greater number of offenses, to reoffend more quickly, and to be formally charged for a suspected offense. Among persons without mental illness in contact with police, men were much more likely than women to be offenders, to have a greater number of offenses, and to reoffend more quickly. Among persons with mental illness, however, the gender gap for these measures was significantly smaller. More resources should be allocated to support persons with mental illness in the community because they tend to have high rates of repeated police contacts for a variety of offenses. The findings highlight the need for gender-specific intervention programs. Administrative databases can be useful tools in examining police contacts among persons with mental illness and monitoring change after policy and program implementation for those at risk of police encounters.

Young persons entering US jails and youth detention facilities have high rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention added STD screening guidelines specific to correctional settings to the 2010 STD Treatment Guidelines. This article summarizes published evidence from 1990 to 2009 used to develop the recommendations. The literature supports routine screening of adolescents and young women (aged ≤35 years, or on the basis of local institutional prevalence data) for chlamydia and gonorrhea because of high prevalence and the subsequent risk of adverse reproductive outcomes. Chlamydia positivity among young women (aged <20 years) in juvenile detention facilities and adult facilities is more than 14%. Men in correctional settings are also at high risk for chlamydia and gonorrhea. Among boys in juvenile detention facilities, chlamydia positivity is estimated at 6.6%; among young men in adult facilities, positivity is 16.6%. Screening men (to reduce sequelae among women) should be considered based on local epidemiology and resource availability. Syphilis screening is not strongly supported in published literature because of low prevalence and is not routinely recommended; however, some screening may be warranted based on local prevalence. Although there is a great diversity in the organization of correctional facilities, implementation of screening recommendations is possible owing to improvements in test technology (urine specimens) and through integration of a standard screening protocol. Based on the high burden of disease and substantial opportunities to reach a high-risk population, correctional facilities are important venues to target efforts to control STDs.

State Mental Health Policy: Mental Health Transformation: Moving Toward a Public Health, Early-Intervention Approach in Texas

This study sought to investigate the rates and correlates of homelessness, especially mental illness, among adult jail inmates. Data from a national survey of jail inmates (N=6,953) were used to compare the proportion of jail inmates who had been homeless in the previous year with the proportion of persons in the general population who had been homeless in the previous year, after standardization to the age, race and ethnicity, and gender distribution of the jail sample. Logistic regression was then used to examine the extent to which homelessness among jail inmates was associated with factors such as symptoms or treatment of mental illness, previous criminal justice involvement, specific recent crimes, and demographic characteristics. Inmates who had been homeless (that is, those who reported an episode of homelessness anytime in the year before incarceration) made up 15.3% of the U.S. jail population, or 7.5 to 11.3 times the standardized estimate of 1.36% to 2.03% in the general U.S. adult population. In comparison with other inmates, those who had been homeless were more likely to be currently incarcerated for a property crime, but they were also more likely to have past criminal justice system involvement for both nonviolent and violent offenses, to have mental health and substance abuse problems, to be less educated, and to be unemployed. Recent homelessness was 7.5 to 11.3 times more common among jail inmates than in the general population. Homelessness and incarceration appear to increase the risk of each other, and these factors seem to be mediated by mental illness and substance abuse, as well as by disadvantageous sociodemographic characteristics.

Jail Incarceration, Homelessness, and Mental Health: A National Study

SUMMARY We shall begin with the principal, and complicated, conclusion: Regrettably, the social work profession has largely abandoned the criminal justice field. That is not to say that social workers are not employed in criminal justice settings. Certainly they are. Significant numbers of social workers earn their living as probation and parole officers, caseworkers in public defender offices, counselors in correctional institutions and halfway houses, and so on. As a profession, however, social work no longer has a major presence in the criminal justice field (Gibelman and Schervish, 1993). Relatively few social workers embark on their professional education with the aim of employment in the criminal justice field. Virtually no courses in social work education programs focus explicitly or comprehensively on criminal justice (Knox and Roberts, 2002; McNeece and Roberts, 1997). Workshops offered at professional conferences or continuing education seminars rarely focus on criminal justice issues per se. And, relatively little serious scholarship on criminal justice issues is authored by social workers. Interestingly, this has not always been the state of affairs. Earlier in the profession's history, social workers were much more visible and vocal participants in dialogue, debate, research, and practice related to criminal justice. Ideally-in light of social work's unique perspectives on practice and social problems, and the profession's noble value base-the profession will reclaim its preoccupation with criminal justice. As Sarri (2001) concludes with respect to social workers' involvement in the juvenile justice system in particular: Thirty years ago, social workers were in leadership positions in juvenile justice in the majority of states. In the 1980s, a gradual decline began in agencies and in social work education for practice in juvenile justice. Some have suggested that the decline was at least partially due to professional resistance to working in coercive settings with involuntary clients. However, given the millions of people now caught up in the criminal justice system who are not receiving the social services they desperately need, it is a priority that social work return to a more central role in criminal justice. (p. 453)

Caring for Older Adults Experiencing Homelessness in the Inpatient Psychiatry Setting: Challenges and Recommendations

New Models of Collaboration Between Criminal Justice and Mental Health Systems