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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

William H. Fisher, PhD, Kristen Roy-Bujnowski, MS, Albert J. Grudzinskas, JD, Jonathan Clayfield, MA, and Steven M. Banks, PhD. Center for Mental Health Services Research, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, MA 01545, 508-856-8711, Bill.Fisher@Umassmed.edu

For nearly two decades services have been developed at the interface of mental health and criminal justice systems designed to divert offenders with mental illness (OMIs) from the justice system to appropriate mental health services. These services, which have included pre and post-booking diversion jail diversion programs, mental health courts and other “front end” programs, as well as re-entry programs for OMIs released from correctional settings, all presume that linkage with community-based mental health services will reduce their likelihood of reoffending. This presentation extends this line of discourse. Using data from a cohort of 13,816 individuals receiving services from a state mental health agency and followed for a period of roughly 10 years, it has been shown that persons receiving case management or residential programming have significantly lower likelihood of experiencing an arrest than those not receiving such services, adjusting for race and age. Those housed are presumably freed from the necessity of committing the so-called “survival crimes” engaged in by persons who are homeless, raising the question of what patterns and types of offending these “served individuals” are likely to display. This presentation addresses that question by comparing the overall rates, types and patterns of offending among service users and non-users in this cohort. The data presented will provide the basis for a discussion of the role that mental health services can and cannot play with regard to reducing offending among persons with mental illness.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the relationship between mental health service use and offending 2.Identify issues related to the development of the "next generation" of offending reduction interventions for recipients of mental health services

Keywords: Mental Health System, Criminal Justice

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation