4.6 Chapter Summary
- When faced with people who need help managing mental disorders, communities have turned to the criminal justice system as a first-line response, adding to the problem of criminalization of mental disorders.
- Criminalization of mental disorders refers to the use of criminal justice tools to manage people with mental disorders who may not require or benefit from arrest or incarceration.
- Criminalization is a problem for criminal justice-involved people who may, as a result of their criminal-system involvement, incur significant harm from police interactions, incarceration, and criminal conviction. These harms may be intensified for otherwise marginalized groups. Criminalization of mental disorders presents legal problems, financial burdens, and poor outcomes that impact individuals, justice system participants, and the larger community.
- Diversion is a response to criminalization that offers opportunities for a person to exit the criminal justice system. Diversion can occur at different points in the criminal justice system, spanning the time before first police contact to the post-incarceration period of supervision.
- The Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) is a tool to assist communities in visualizing various potential points of diversion, and it can be used to spur community development of diversion programs by identifying needs and opportunities. Intercepts 0 through 5 specifically highlight points in the criminal justice pathway where diversion can occur. Each intercept has strengths and potential weaknesses.
Key Term Definitions
- Community corrections: A system of oversight outside of jail (probation) or after serving time in prison (post-prison or parole) where the supervised person has conditions they must fulfill to remain in the community.
- Criminalization of mental disorders: Using the criminal justice system as a response to people who come to the attention of authorities primarily due to their mental disorders.
- Diversion: When a person is identified at some point (early or late) in the criminal justice system and provided with a pathway out of that system.
- Intercept: A window in time during a person’s interaction with the criminal justice system when that person might be provided an opportunity for diversion out of the system.
- Mental health court: A diversion or “problem-solving” court that substitutes treatment and other interventions for traditional criminal punishments (jail or fines) for qualifying offenders.
- National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI): A nationwide advocacy organization for people experiencing mental illness and their families.
- Pretrial services: Programs that allow a person to be supervised in the community while awaiting resolution of criminal charges.
- Problem-solving courts: Courts that attempt to support sustainable behavior changes (and avoid incarceration) by responding to offending conduct with treatment and other interventions. Also called treatment courts or specialty courts. Examples are drug courts and mental health courts.
- Reentry: The process of leaving jail or prison, from preparation and planning during incarceration through release into the community.
- School-to-prison pipeline: Patterns of school discipline that push students toward entry into the juvenile or adult justice systems. This is a particular risk and concern for students of color, disabled students, and students living in poverty.
- Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA): An agency of the U.S. government that leads public health initiatives aimed at improving national mental health. SAMHSA offers extensive information and resources on mental disorders.
- Sequential Intercept Model (SIM): A tool for discussing and assessing various diversion options for people with mental disorders at progressive points, or intercepts, in the criminal justice system. The SIM may highlight options that are available or missing in a particular community or at a particular intercept point.
Discussion Questions
- What factors led to the problem of criminalization of mental disorders? What solutions can you imagine that could reduce or solve this problem on a larger scale? Are there new problems created by your solution?
- How does the problem of criminalization of mental disorders differently impact groups of people who are marginalized in additional ways beyond their experience of mental disorders (e.g., by race, gender identity, poverty, or other factors)?
- Which particular intercept point, in your estimation, represents the best time to divert people out of the criminal justice system? What factors lead you to favor that intercept point?
- What are the pros and cons of mental health courts, as discussed in the text and portrayed in the linked video, as a diversion opportunity? What changes might you propose to improve the mental health court model?
Knowledge Check
Use these optional questions to check your knowledge after reading this chapter.
Licenses and Attributions for Chapter Summary
“Chapter Summary” by Anne Nichol is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
