Women in Criminal Justice

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

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

Toward Successful Postbooking Diversion: What Are the Next Steps?

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)

New Models of Collaboration Between Criminal Justice and Mental Health Systems

PROTOCOL: The impact of juvenile system processing on delinquency

Through the rapid modern growth of private security as a form of “internal” policing, and the preference of many large organizations for handling problems “internally” which might previously have b...

Although studies reveal substantial mental health treatment needs among youths in the juvenile justice system, far less is known about young offenders transferred to adult criminal court. This statewide study examined the mental health needs of young offenders who committed serious crimes and were transferred to adult court and subsequently incarcerated in a prison for adults. Sixty-four boys aged 16 and 17 years who were incarcerated in the Texas adult correctional system completed the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument-Version 2 (MAYSI-2), a mental health screening measure widely used in the juvenile justice system. Scores from the youths in adult prison were compared with those of a matched sample of youths in juvenile correctional facilities, drawn from the MAYSI-2 normative data. Youths in adult prison reported substantial symptoms of mental health problems. Most youths surveyed (51%) scored above the highest clinical cutoff (the "warning" range) on at least one MAYSI-2 subscale. For every clinical subscale except suicide ideation, the majority of youths (54% to 70%, depending on the subscale) scored above the "caution" range. Juveniles in adult prison reported higher rates of symptoms than did those in juvenile correctional facilities (effect sizes ranged from d=.18 to d=.65, depending on the subscale). Although the mental health needs of youths in the juvenile justice system are well documented, this study reveals that mental health treatment needs appear to be even more pronounced in the small subgroup of youths transferred to the adult criminal justice system and incarcerated in adult prison.

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

We evaluated a prebooking law enforcement assisted diversion (LEAD) program (i.e., initial diversion from the criminal justice system paired with harm-reduction case management and legal assistance to individuals with repeated, low-level drug or prostitution offenses) on criminal justice and legal system utilization and associated costs. We used a nonequivalent-groups longitudinal quasi-experimental field trial design in which participants received either the prebooking law enforcement assisted diversion (LEAD) program or the comparison condition (i.e., booking and prosecution as usual). We compared outcomes for LEAD (n = 202) versus comparison (n = 114) participants on criminal justice and legal system utilization and associated costs. Subsequent to evaluation entry, LEAD participants had 1.4 fewer average yearly jail bookings, spent about 41 fewer days in jail per year, and had 88% lower odds of prison incarceration relative to comparison participants. LEAD participants also showed significant pre-to-post reductions in legal costs (− $2100), whereas comparison participants showed cost increases (+ $5961). LEAD was associated with statistically significant reductions in criminal justice and legal system utilization and associated costs and represents a promising alternative to the criminal justice system for repeated, low-level drug and prostitution offenders. LEAD is well positioned to positively impact criminal justice policy.

This study examined the relationship of age and gender with risk of arrest among adolescents and young adults who were intensive adolescent users of public mental health services. Data were obtained from the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (DMH) and juvenile and criminal courts. Participants were youths receiving DMH adolescent case management services sometime in 1994-1996 who were born between 1976 and 1979 (781 males and 738 females). They were cross-matched to document arrests between age seven and 25. The study examined age at first arrest, age-specific risk, and the relationship between arrest history and arrest risk by gender and age. Most males (69%) and almost half the females (46%) were arrested by age 25. First arrest was most common before age 18. As in the general population, males' arrest patterns were more concerning than those of females, although patterns were of concern in both groups. Most female arrestees had multiple arrests, many as adults. No gender differences were observed for several factors, including risk of first arrest over age 18. Risk was far greater for those arrested in the previous year than for those never arrested. Findings justify concerns of public mental health systems regarding justice system involvement of adolescent clients. Risk of first arrest was significant from early adolescence through age 24, indicating a need for arrest prevention into young adulthood. The heightened arrest risk at all ages among those who were recently arrested demarcates a population in need of immediate intervention.

This study identified characteristics and experiences of arrestees and jail inmates with a serious mental illness that were associated with misdemeanor and felony arrests and additional days in jail. County and statewide criminal justice records and health and social service archival data sets were used to identify inmates with serious mental illness who were in the Pinellas County, Florida, jail between July 1, 2003, and June 30, 2004, and their health and social service contacts from July 1, 2002, to June 10, 2006. Criminal justice and mental health services were recorded longitudinally across 16 quarters, or 90-day periods. Generalized estimating equations for count data were used to describe the associations between individual characteristics and experiences and the risks of misdemeanor and felony arrests and additional days in jail. A total of 3,769 jail inmates (10.1% of all jail inmates) were diagnosed as having a serious mental illness. Participants experienced a mean+/-SD of .90+/-.60 arrest for every three quarters and 10.9+/-23.6 days in jail per quarter that they resided in the county. Being male, being homeless, not having outpatient mental health treatment, and having an involuntary psychiatric evaluation in the previous quarter were independently associated with significantly increased odds of misdemeanor arrests and additional days in jail. On the other hand, being black, being younger than 21 years, having a nonpsychotic diagnosis, and a co-occurring substance use disorder diagnosis were all independently associated with significantly increased odds of felony arrests, and with the exception of having a nonpsychotic diagnosis, they were also significantly associated with additional days in jail. Findings suggest that there are subgroups of individuals with a serious mental illness in the criminal justice system that may require different policy and programmatic responses.

The exploration of the overrepresentation of the poor and poor minorities in both the juvenile and criminal justice systems has been the center of several experimental and empirical investigations. Researchers, policy makers, criminologists, and advocates are well aware of the implications that differential offending, bureaucratic bias, and the various social disparities depicted among social control policies and ecological settings have on impoverished minority populations. These disparities have various disadvantaging effects on future life outcomes, life trajectories, and involvement in criminal activity. Although much is known about the overrepresentation of impoverished minorities in both the criminal and juvenile justice systems, little has been done to address the many concerns. Rather, numerous efforts in the forms of both legal and extralegal factors have been enacted to concentrate segmented populations. These effects further disadvantage minority and poverty‐stricken populations, making any upward mobilization almost impossible. The key issues surrounding the overrepresentation of poor and poor minorities in crime statistics include the importance of understanding community‐level perspectives, which entrench the disadvantaged. Also, it is necessary to identify theoretical approaches that outline bias within the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Furthermore, the information will collaboratively exemplify differences in increased social control policies among poor minorities.

The authors make the case for expanding the national discussion of inpatient psychiatric beds to recognize and incorporate other vital components of the continuum of care in order to improve outcomes for individuals with serious mental illness. They review the varied terminology applied to psychiatric beds and describe how the location of these beds has changed from primarily state hospitals to the criminal justice system, emergency departments, inpatient units, and the community. The authors propose 10 recommendations related to beds or to contextual issues regarding them. The recommendations address issues of mental illness terminology, criminal and juvenile justice diversion, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, mental health technology, and the mental health workforce, among others. Each recommendation is based on findings from publicly available data and clinical observation and is intended to reduce the human and economic costs associated with severe mental illness by promoting a robust, interconnected, and evidence-based system of care that goes beyond beds.

Criminal Justice in Transition: The Northern Ireland ContextA.‐M. McAlinden and C. Dwyer (Eds.). Oxford: Hart (2015) 386pp. £49.50hb ISBN 978–1849465779