Session: Complexities of Mental Health Factors Among Criminal Justice Involved Individuals (Society for Social Work and Research 21st Annual Conference - Ensure Healthy Development for all Youth)

The deinstitutionalization of persons with serious mental illness (SMI) has resulted in an overrepresentation of this population in the U.S. criminal justice system (CJS).  Well over one million of the nearly seven million adults involved in the CJS suffer from SMI.  Within the last decade, the CJS has also seen immense growth in the number of incarcerated women; increases nearly double the rate of men since 1985.  There are currently more than one million women under the supervision of the CJS, the majority of whom have disparate mental health issues compared to the general population and criminal justice involved men.     

The rapid influx of these new populations into the CJS has only further constrained the provision of necessary services to these vulnerable populations within correctional facilities and community supervision programs.  Understanding the risk factors and complex needs of criminal justice involved people with SMI and women is necessary for recidivism reduction and the development of effective interventions that promote health and rehabilitation for these populations.  

The four papers in this symposium provide critical insights into the unique mental health issues and criminogenic risk factors of the abovementioned populations.  The first paper presents findings from a study involving 23 incarcerated women, a majority of whom had sentences of life with the possibility of parole.  This study sheds light on the distinct mental health concerns related to incarcerated women, and the impact of state and national sentencing practices on this growing population.  Second is a study that identified the predictors of posttraumatic stress symptoms among a sample of victimized women in the CJS.  The study builds on our understanding of the physical and mental health disparities among criminal justice involved women compared to the general population, and has the capacity to inform the development of correctional and community based interventions that meet the unique needs of this population.  The third paper reports outcomes from a comparison of criminogenic risk levels of people with SMI in jail and prison, and people in prison without SMI.  This study demonstrates that people with SMI in jail and prison have a criminogenic risk level that places them at high risk for recidivism.  Findings support the claim that in order to reduce justice involvement among people with SMI, mental health services must include interventions that address criminogenic risk factors.  The final paper discusses the adaptive responses developed by probationers with SMI as a method to successfully navigate the complex demands of their programs.  Understanding these processes can help develop probationary programming more effective in serve individuals with SMI.

This symposium contains critical information in the promotion of smart decarceration.  By utilizing mixed method approaches, these studies advance the empirical knowledge base of understudied segments of the criminal justice population, and represent a range of criminal justice involvement across the system.  Findings emphasize the ways social work can continue to impact this grand challenge by improving public safety outcomes and guiding more responsive and appropriate treatment and engagement strategies for people with SMI and women.