While the population characteristics of mentally ill jail detainees are well documented, little has been written about this population at the pre-arraignment stage of criminal justice processing, and only anecdotal information is available regarding New York City. This paper presentation will briefly map the arrest to arraignment process and then focus on results from a study of two groups: 1) a random sample of 312 men and women who were pre-arraignment detainees prior to their appearance at a New York City evening arraignment court, and 2) a sample of 50 police identified (Emotionally Disturbed Persons). Each subject completed a structured interview, measures of alcohol and drug use (including quantity and frequency), psychiatric symptom severity, a global non-verbal problem solving abstract ability test and a comprehensive psychiatric, psychosocial, medical, legal, demographic and service needs interview. Collateral hospital, police booking and arrest information was also collected; prior to index arrest history, one year follow-up arrests, and court dispositions were analyzed. Building upon preliminary significant findings for groups differences for a number of psychiatric, legal, and psychosocial variables, this presentation will present additional comparative analyses of the characteristics of sub-samples (those with mental health diagnoses who were police designated, those with mental health diagnoses who were not police designated, and those with no diagnosis), prior service use and services needs. Implications for policy and court-based programs will be discussed.
Learning Objectives: 1. Will be able to better identify those entering the criminal justice system in need of intervention. 2.Will be better able to target client seeking strategies and develop interventions best matched to those with mental health problems who have not yet been arraigned. 3. Implications for policy and program development of false postive versus false negative identification of mental illness at this stage.
Keywords: Mental Illness, Criminal Justice
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: none
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.