Reentry for Safer Communities: Effective County Practices in Jail to Community Transition Planning for Offenders with Mental Health and Substance Abuse Disorders, National Association of Counties, September 2008
Six diverse model county programs are highlighted for their innovation and success in addressing transition planning from jail for offenders with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders.
Iowa Mental Health Reentry Program
The Iowa Mental Health Reentry is open to individuals identified as chronically mentally ill who agree to close community supervision for at least six months, participate in treatment, and meet with a community accountability board once every six weeks. The program offers services, such as assistance in connecting with mental health service providers, applying for food stamps, Medicaid, and Social Security, finding housing and paying rent, paying for therapy, transportation to appointments or bus passes, enrolling in education or job training programs and providing emotional support and guidance.
Assessment: Individuals who participated in this program were more likely to complete its requirements and remain in the community (as opposed to returning to incarceration) than the control group. A 2007 evaluation found that twenty-four percent of participants were unsuccessfully discharged from the program, whereas 39% of the comparison group had their supervision revoked. Additionally, 40% of participants returned to prison within three years, as compared to 51% of other Iowa offenders with mental illness diagnoses. Hein, Institute for Social and Economic Development, An Evaluation of Three Transitional Mental Health Re-entry Programs in Iowa: Fourth Annual Evaluation Report Executive Summary, pp. ix-x (2007).
San Francisco Behavioral Health Court
The Behavioral Health Court (BHC) provides participants with a continuum of care, including injail services, pre-release transitional care, and early release into the community. Offenders can qualify to participate if they have been diagnosed as having an Axis I mental disorder according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM–IV) or, in some circumstances, with developmental disabilities. Participation is voluntary and defendants can often take part in the program without having to admit guilt. BHC is one of the only mental health courts in the country providing gender specific treatment. The BHC adopted the Women’s Integrated Skills and Health (WISH) Project, which diverts female offenders with mental health disorders to appropriate community mental health treatment services.
Assessment: A 2007 study indicates that even individuals who fail to graduate from the program experience positive results from participating (McNeil et al., 2007). Additionally, a 2009 costbenefit analysis of the program demonstrated that in the third year after individuals began participating in the program, savings in criminal justice procedures and treatment costs offset BHC costs and yielded a net savings of $277,000 (Lindberg 2009). McNiel & Binder, Effectiveness of a Mental Health Court in Reducing Criminal Recidivism and Violence, The American Journal of Psychiatry 164:1395 (2007). Lindberg, Superior Court of San Francisco, Costs and Benefits of Behavioral Health Court: Findings from “Examining Program Costs and Outcomes of San Francisco’s Behavioral Health Court” (2009).
