Preventing Criminal Recidivism Through Mental Health and Criminal Justice Collaboration

Specialized mental health courts (MHCs) address the growing problem of defendants with mental illness cycling through the criminal justice system. Employing a mixed-methods approach, this article explores if MHCs can slow the “revolving door” of criminal justice involvement. We use quantitative data to evaluate the effectiveness of one MHC on different measures of criminal recidivism with logistic regression, event history analysis, and negative binomial regression. Modeling strategies report that graduates of MHC, defendants offered a dismissal of criminal charges, and defendants who maintained the same noncrisis mental health treatment while in court as they had prior to court had lower odds of new criminal charges, a longer time to a new criminal charge, and fewer new criminal charges. Qualitative data—court observations and interviews—suggest that providing incentives for program compliance, connecting defendants to planned mental health treatment services, and court completion are central to reducing recidivism.

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The Interface of the Criminal Justice and Mental Health Systems

Contemporary Psychology ◽

10.1037/018067 ◽

1980 ◽

Vol 25 (8) ◽

pp. 630-631

Author(s):

TERENCE P. THORNBERRY

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Criminal Justice ◽

Health Systems ◽

Mental Health Systems

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Criminal Justice Interventions for Offenders With Mental Illness: Evaluation of Mental Health Courts in Bronx and Brooklyn, New York

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e526732013-001 ◽

2012 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Shelli B. Rossman ◽

Janeen Buck Willison ◽

Kamala Mallik-Kane ◽

KiDeuk Kim ◽

Sara Debus-Sherrill ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

New York ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Criminal Justice ◽

Mental Health Courts ◽

Offenders With Mental Illness

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Happenings: Criminal Justice/Mental Health Liaisons Network

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e639752007-006 ◽

2007 ◽

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Criminal Justice

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Expanding the early and late starter model of criminal justice involvement for forensic mental health clients.

Law and Human Behavior ◽

10.1037/lhb0000269 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 42 (1) ◽

pp. 83-93 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Anne G. Crocker ◽

Michael S. Martin ◽

Marichelle C. Leclair ◽

Tonia L. Nicholls ◽

Michael C. Seto

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Criminal Justice ◽

Forensic Mental Health ◽

Criminal Justice Involvement ◽

Mental Health Clients ◽

Late Starter

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Policing, Crime and Mental Illness in England and Wales: Insights from the Literature

Review of European Studies ◽

10.5539/res.v9n2p248 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 9 (2) ◽

pp. 248

Author(s):

Frank Kitt ◽

Colin Rogers

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Mental Illness ◽

Criminal Justice ◽

Justice System ◽

Historical Context ◽

Public Agencies ◽

England And Wales ◽

Police Service ◽

High Profile ◽

Made In

Mental illness pervades most societies, but it is only recently that its impact and effects upon individuals has slowly been recognised in England and Wales. When people suffering from this illness become involved with various public agencies, the way they are dealt with appears inconsistent and on occasions ends in tragedy. One agency that is constantly in contact with people who suffer mental health illness is the police service. Some high profile cases have clearly illustrated misunderstandings and the fact that the police are not generally equipped to deal with such individuals. This article considers a brief history and theoretical backcloth to police understanding and framing of mental illness in England and Wales, and explores the National Liaison and Diversion Model as an alternative to traditional police understanding and response. The article suggests that only by understanding the historical context, and literature, surrounding mental illness, can improvements be made in the criminal justice system as a whole and within the police service in particular.

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Managing criminal acts on the psychiatric ward: understanding the police view

Advances in Psychiatric Treatment ◽

10.1192/apt.9.5.359 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 9 (5) ◽

pp. 359-367 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Richard Bayney ◽

George Ikkos

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Criminal Justice ◽

Justice System ◽

Psychiatric Patients ◽

Psychiatric Services ◽

Case Vignette ◽

Psychiatric Ward ◽

Police Services ◽

Local Police ◽

Legal Remedies

Success in preventing and responding to criminal behaviours on psychiatric wards may sometimes require cooperation between mental health services and local police services. This is especially so when seeking legal remedies through the criminal justice system. This article describes police perceptions of psychiatric services and psychiatric patients. It also reviews police procedures and factors that influence their response when the police are requested to intervene following an alleged criminal act by an in-patient. A case vignette is used to highlight the causes of tensions and guide the reader through the steps that might be considered when the issue of prosecution arises.

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Pathways to care and ethnicity. 2: Source of referral and help-seeking

The British Journal of Psychiatry ◽

10.1192/bjp.186.4.290 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 186 (4) ◽

pp. 290-296 ◽

Cited By ~ 97

Author(s):

Craig Morgan ◽

Rosemarie Mallett ◽

Gerard Hutchinson ◽

Hemant Bagalkote ◽

Kevin Morgan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Criminal Justice ◽

Help Seeking ◽

Pathways To Care ◽

First Episode ◽

Criminal Justice Agency ◽

Black African ◽

African Caribbean ◽

African Patients ◽

Pathway To Care

BackgroundPrevious research has found that African–Caribbean and Black African patients are likely to come into contact with mental health services via more negative routes, when compared with White patients. We sought to investigate pathways to mental health care and ethnicity in a sample of patients with a first episode of psychosis drawn from two UK centres.MethodWe included all White British, other White, African–Caribbean and Black African patients with a first episode of psychosis who made contact with psychiatric services over a 2-year period and were living in defined areas. Clinical, socio-demographic and pathways to care data were collected from patients, relatives and case notes.ResultsCompared with White British patients, general practitioner referral was less frequent for both African–Caribbean and Black African patients and referral by a criminal justice agency was more common. With the exception of criminal justice referrals for Black African patients, these findings remained significant after adjusting for potential confounders.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that factors are operating during a first episode of psychosis to increase the risk that the pathway to care for Black patients will involve non-health professionals.

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