Mental Health Court Outcomes: A Comparison of Re-Arrest and Re-Arrest Severity Between Mental Health Court and Traditional Court Participants

Mental health courts have been proliferating across the country since their establishment in the late 1990's. Although numerous advocates have proclaimed their merit, only few empirical studies have evaluated their outcomes. This paper evaluates the effect of one mental health court on criminal justice outcomes by examining arrests and offense severity from one year before to one year after entry into the court, and by comparing mental health court participants to comparable traditional criminal court defendants on these measures. Multivariate models support the prediction that mental health courts reduce the number of new arrests and the severity of such re-arrests among mentally ill offenders. Similar analysis of mental health court completers and non-completers supports the prediction that a "full dose" of mental health treatment and court monitoring produce even fewer re-arrests.     

精神发育迟滞者的刑事责任能力评定

本文对８０例精神发育迟滞有违法行为者的智力缺损程度、犯案动机、预谋、自我保护能力及对行为的辨认、控制能力等因素进行分析。鉴定结论，诊断为轻度精神发育迟滞者５８例（７２．５％），中度者１７例（２１．３％），重度者５例（６．２％）。评定无责任能力者１３例（１６．３％），限制责任能力４５例（５６．２％），完全责任能力２２例（２７．５％）。     

云南省禁毒警察工作环境与心理健康问题分析

禁毒警察是一支特殊的警察队伍,他们的职业具有高风险、高压力、高负荷、高诱惑的特点。他们在工作中所承受着高强度的心理压力,因此心理健康状况亟需关注。应对由职业带来的心理压力,需要公安机关警察队伍管理部门和民警个人共同作出努力,保障禁毒民警心理健康,才能为禁毒事业做出更大贡献。     

精神病司法鉴定若干法律问题研究

精神病鉴定因涉及精神病医学、心理学、法学以及社会学等诸多领域的专门知识而呈现出复杂性。与其他医学学科相比,精神病医学的发展相对缓慢,在一定程度上制约了精神病鉴定制度的发展,甚至影响了鉴定程序启动的正常展开。精神病鉴定制度的不完善及其程序启动的失当又导致实践中出现精神病鉴定的乱象。从司法鉴定实践中可以发现,精神病鉴定本身的可靠程度以及刑事责任能力的评定与鉴定启动、鉴定结果选择等具有内在的互动性。尽管精神病鉴定制度无力解决精神病医学不发达的根本性问题,但科学的精神病鉴定制度对精神病鉴定技术、鉴定能力与鉴定质量的提高有较大的助益。     

Mental health law and the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities

People with a mental illness may be subject to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), depending on definitions of terms such as ‘impairment’, ‘long-term’ and the capaciousness of the word ‘includes’ in the Convention's characterisation of persons with disabilities. Particularly challenging under the CRPD is the scope, if any, for involuntary treatment.     

Mental health specialized probation caseloads: Are they effective?

With the large and growing number of persons with mental illnesses under probation supervision, a form of specialized probation called specialized mental health caseload (SMHC) has been implemented. This study explores the effectiveness of a prototypic SMHC implemented statewide. A quasi-experimental design was used to compare criminal justice, mental health, and community engagement outcomes among three caseloads: a newly established SMHC supervising no more than 30 clients per officer (N = 1367); an established SMHC supervising roughly 50 clients per officer (N = 495); and a traditional caseload of clients receiving mental health treatment and supervised by officers with average caseloads of over 130 clients (N = 5453). Using a mixed methods approach, we found that the SMHC was implemented with high adherence to fidelity, and comparisons based on different caseload samples generally support the effectiveness of the specialized mental health caseload, particularly on criminal justice outcomes. Future studies using random assignment are needed to examine the connection among mental health symptoms, compliance with treatment and probation supervision, and recidivism.     

Mental disorder and probation policy and practice: A view from the UK

This article is concerned with the manner in which offenders with mental illnesses serving community sentences are identified and treated by the probation service in the UK. It presents the results of recent research examining the prevalence levels of current and lifetime mental illness, substance misuse, and dual diagnosis and suicide rates amongst those serving community sentences in the UK. These high levels of mental disorder are not being addressed by probation policy or practice in a manner that is effective or sensitive. The article concludes by considering the relevance of innovative approaches to the treatment of offenders with mental illnesses in the community currently being adopted in the US to the UK.     

Community Wise: Paving the way for empowerment in community reentry

Theoretical approaches traditionally applied in mental health and criminal justice interventions fail to address the historical and structural context that partially explains health disparities. Community Wise was developed to address this gap. It is a 12 week group intervention informed by Critical Consciousness Theory and designed to prevent substance abuse, related health risk behaviors, psychological distress, and reoffending among individuals with a history of incarceration and substance abuse. This paper reports findings from the first implementation and pilot evaluation of Community Wise in two community-based organizations. This pre–posttest evaluation pilot-tested Community Wise and used findings to improve the intervention. Twenty-six participants completed a phone and clinical screening, baseline, 6- and 12-week follow-ups, and a focus group at the end of the intervention. Measures assessed participants' demographic information, psychological distress, substance use, criminal offending, HIV risk behaviors, community cohesion, community support, civic engagement, critical consciousness, ethnic identification, group cohesion, client satisfaction, and acquired treatment skills. Research methods were found to be feasible and useful in assessing the intervention. Results indicated that while Community Wise is a promising intervention, several changes need to be made in order to enhance the intervention. Community Wise is a new approach where oppressed individuals join in critical dialogue, tap into existing community resources, and devise, implement and evaluate their own community solutions to structural barriers.     

“The ladder of the law has no top and no bottom”: How therapeutic jurisprudence can give life to international human rights

In the past two decades, therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) has become one of the most important theoretical approaches to the law. But, there has, as of yet, been puzzlingly little written about the relationship between TJ and international human rights law. To be sure, there has been some preliminary and exploratory work on the relationship between TJ and international law in general, but virtually nothing on its relationship to international human rights law in a mental disability law context. This paper seeks to focus on this lack of consideration, to speculate as to why that might be, and to offer some suggestions as to how to infuse some new vitality and vigor into this important area of law and social policy.     

Involuntary detention and treatment of the mentally ill: China's 2012 Mental Health Law

The long-awaited Mental Health Law of China was passed on 26 October 2012 and took effect on 1 May 2013. Being the first national legislation on mental health, it establishes a basic legal framework to regulate mental health practice and recognizes the fundamental rights of persons with mental disorders. This article focuses on the system of involuntary detention and treatment of the mentally ill under the new law, which is expected to prevent the so-called “Being misidentified as mentally disordered” cases in China. A systematic examination of the new system demonstrates that the Mental Health Law of China implicitly holds two problematic assumptions and does not provide adequate protection of the fundamental rights of the involuntary patients. Administrative enactments and further national legislative efforts are needed to remedy these flaws in the new law.