Social Work's Role in Refining the Sequential Intercept Model: Assessing and Modifying Theory with Practice Insights

The Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) is a framework used to display points of intervention in the criminal legal system where individuals with behavioral health issues could be diverted to social support services or treatment in lieu of criminalization. As currently conceptualized, the SIM consists of several linear intercepts ranging from prevention of involvement with the criminal legal system (i.e., pre-arrest) to community reentry following incarceration. Each intercept presents an opportunity for interventions and policies to increase use of community alternatives to incarceration and critically examine current practices. However, there are gaps in communication and collaboration between administrators, mental health professionals, and other advocates at various intercepts of the SIM - contributing to missed opportunities to divert individuals from the criminal legal system. Further advancing the SIM requires identifying where social workers fit into this model, decentralizing the focus on criminal legal actors where appropriate, and infusing more restorative principles into how the model is conceptualized and implemented. The presenters in this roundtable will discuss how social workers should be embedded in programming throughout the various SIM intercepts to prevent criminal legal system involvement or provide needed treatment/wraparound services as an individual moves through the SIM's various intercepts. They will also discuss how the establishment of cross-systems collaboration calls for a potential re-drawing of the SIM to a wheel design, as opposed to its current linear pathway. Dr. Comartin will discuss the importance of jurisdictional advisory boards and their role in facilitating cross-systems collaboration, including co-responses with social workers and how jurisdictional advisory boards can be used to monitor and assess the implementation of behavioral health interventions across the SIM's intercepts. Next, Dr. Sawh will discuss the role of community corrections within the SIM, how individuals' needs on parole and probation can vary widely from one another, and the potential benefit of providing behavioral health services to those on probation - the largest single component of the U.S. corrections system. Next, doctoral student, Ms. Suslovic, will discuss how community partners in Chicago agreed to develop a process by which misdemeanor defendants who demonstrate significant mental or behavioral health issues have an opportunity to be diverted directly into the mental health system at their first court appearance. Results from a program evaluation of a pilot misdemeanor treatment-based diversion program will be presented along with its potential implications for developing a revised SIM that is responsive to systematic differences in risk, outcomes, and resources between individuals facing misdemeanor charges and individuals facing felony charges. With a greater recognition of the underlying behavioral health and social issues that may contribute to involvement with the criminal legal system, Dr. Kheibari will then discuss Holistic Defense whereby public defense offices use interdisciplinary defense teams, including social workers, to address individuals' underlying behavioral health needs and advocate for better outcomes, such as reduced sentences or community-based alternatives to incarceration. Dr. Applegarth will conclude the session by discussing the role social workers must play in refining the conceptualization and application of the SIM.