LibGuides: Criminal Justice: Rehabilitative Programs

Featured Articles with Brief Abstract: Prisoner Reentry Programs

Evaluation of an occupational therapy reentry program: Achieving goals to support employment and community living after incarceration
Individuals released from prisons to community supervision often experience unstable housing, unemployment, substance misuse, mental ill-health, and lack of support systems contributing to high rates of recidivism. Occupational therapy practitioners have distinct value in promoting engagement in new habits and routines to support "occupation," or development of daily living skills to support community reentry.
Expanding Treatment, Recovery, and Reentry Services for Female Offenders: Improving Outcomes through Client-Centered Interventions
This study investigated the impact of a specialized program aimed at improving substance use disorder and trauma treatment, recovery, and reentry services for adult female offenders.
Finding Their Feet: How Reentry Court Changes the Path of Returning Citizens in the District of Minnesota
“These individuals need and deserve our attention, our care, and our compassion, even though it is also our responsibility to
supervise and hold them accountable. Re-entry court serves this precise purpose.” – Judge Donovan Frank1
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Copy and Paste this Article Link: https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/lawineq/vol37/iss1/10/
Making the case for innovative reentry employment programs: previously incarcerated women as birth doulas – a case study
The purpose of this paper is to make a case for novel and innovative reentry programs focused on women of color and to describe policy recommendations that are necessary to support the sustainability of these programs and in turn the success of the women who participate in them.
A qualitative exploration of reentry service needs: The case of fathers returning from prison
By including the voices of those most affected by incarceration, this study advances knowledge to shape reentry programs and policies, contributes to efforts addressing criminal justice inequities, and promotes well‐being among formerly incarcerated parents and their families.

Feature Articles with Brief Abstracts: Mental Health Crisis Intervention Programs

Contextual Factors of Mental Health Crisis Calls to Law Enforcement: A Brief Report
This study is an exploratory, descriptive assessment of contextual factors, both individual and situational, of mental health and suicide crisis calls.
Promoting Mental Health and Criminal Justice Collaboration Through System-Level Partnerships
It is widely accepted that promoting mental health and criminal justice collaboration is a key to addressing these concerns. Promoting effective collaboration is challenging, however, due to fundamental differences in cultures and methods that exist between mental health and criminal justice service providers.
Crisis intervention team training: when police encounter persons with mental illness
The present study examines characteristics and outcomes of encounters between citizens experiencing mental health-related crises and CIT-trained patrol officers.
Countywide implementation of crisis intervention teams: Multiple methods, measures and sustained outcomes
This case study presents the countywide implementation of CIT and expands previous findings on the prevalence of officer interaction with persons with mental health issues and CIT training outcomes, including changes in officer perception of individuals with mental health issues.
The crisis intervention team (CIT) model: An evidence-based policing practice?
In this commentary, we briefly describe the CIT model, examine definitions of evidence-based practice and evidence-based policing, and then summarize the existing research on what is known about the effectiveness of CIT to date.
We Can Do Better: A Critical Review of Commercially Endorsed Crisis Intervention Programs
Crisis intervention programs have been developed to help educators be better prepared to prevent and respond to students in crisis. Schools spend millions of dollars for the use of these commercial programs, many of which are based on the principles of the Cycle of Acting Out Behavior (Colvin & Scott, 2015), which is considered the "gold standard". However, little research has been done on the effectiveness of these programs. This article discusses the potential implications of relying on practices with limited empirical support to educate some of the most vulnerable students.
Evaluation of a Crisis Intervention Team Pilot Program: Results from Baltimore, MD
This study used mixed methods to evaluate the effect of the CIT pilot on BPD officer attitudes regarding persons with mental illness and confidence managing behavioral health calls for service.
Implementation of a crisis resolution team service improvement programme: a qualitative study of the critical ingredients for success
This paper describes a qualitative evaluation of the perspectives of CRT staff, managers, and programme facilitators. We identify barriers and facilitators to implementation, and mechanisms by which service improvements took place.
To What Extent Is Criminal Justice Content Specifically Addressed in MSW Programs? A 10 Year Review and Update
This study examined the prevalence and types of criminal justice content being offered in Council on Social Work Education programs.

Featured Articles: Criminal Justice Rehabilitative Programs

ABOUT A REVOLUTION: TOWARD INTEGRATED TREATMENT IN DRUG AND MENTAL HEALTH COURTS
This Article examines specialty courts, including drug, alcohol, and mental health courts, which proponents claim created a revolution in criminal justice. Defendants whose underlying crime is the result of a substance use disorder or a mental health disorder can choose to be diverted into a specialty court, where they receive treatment instead of punishment. Many of these individuals, however, do not just suffer from a substance use disorder or a mental health disorder; instead, many have a "cooccurring disorder."
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Copy and Paste this Article Link: https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/nclr/vol97/iss2/3/
Adverse effects of criminal legal system involvement: a qualitative study examining the role of incarceration and reentry on substance use trajectories among women with opioid use disorders
Background: Women with substance use disorders (SUDs) often experience adversity related to incarceration and reentry that can impact their substance use outcomes. This study aims to examine the adverse effects of incarceration and reentry on substance use outcomes among women with a history of opioid use disorder (OUD).Methods: We carried out 42 semi-structured interviews (May–July 2022) with women with a history of criminal legal involvement and OUD (n = 20), criminal legal professionals (n = 10), and SUD treatment professionals (n = 12). The interviews focused on women's substance use trajectories, barriers to treatment, and the intersection of the criminal legal system and treatment. None of the women were presently incarcerated during their interviews. Results: Participants expressed the severe adverse impact of criminal legal involvement on women with OUD.
AT A CROSSROADS: Clinicians and Law Enforcement, a Partnership to Protect Mental Health
Individuals with serious mental illness are over 10 times as likely to experience use
of force in interactions with law enforcement than those without serious mental illness.1 Furthermore, approximately 25% of all fatal police shootings in the US between
2015 and 2020 involved someone with a mental illness.
Behavioral health indicators and time-to-rearrest in an adult pre-arrest diversion program
Several states have recently adopted legislation in support of pre-arrest diversion programs that give police the authority to refer adults with behavioral health needs to treatment providers instead of placing them under arrest and booking them into local jails. The Adult Civil Citation program has been operating since 2013 to divert adults accused for the first time of a misdemeanor offense to a community behavioral health provider with the primary goal of addressing underlying needs that are likely to be associated with future criminal justice contact. The current study analyzed data from a sample of 1,071 adults who participated in the program to assess the impact of behavioral health indicators on time-to-rearrest.
Criminal Justice Barriers to Treatment of Opioid Use Disorders in the United States: The Need for Public Health Advocacy
Expanding access to treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) is central to addressing the US overdose mortality crisis. Numerous barriers to OUD treatment are encountered in criminal justice institutions and processes, with which people with OUD are disproportionately involved. OUD treatment access is severely limited in US corrections facilities, with few exceptions. Drug treatment courts, which in principle provide court-supervised treatment as an alternative to prison, have also unduly limited treatment options, particularly medication-assisted treatment. The voice and expertise of health professionals are urgently needed to remove these barriers and ensure that criminally accused persons are systematically linked to the care they need.
Effectiveness of current policing-related mental health interventions in England and Wales and Crisis Intervention Teams as a future potential model: a systematic review.
The objectives of the review are firstly to identify and report research on the relevant interventions, nationally and internationally and then secondly to consider, when possible, which interventions or aspects of those interventions are effective. This is judged with regard to changes in mental health status or service use and future offending behaviour.
Eliminating Gaps in Medicaid Coverage During Reentry After Incarceration
This commentary explores the health and social challenges associated with gaps in Medicaid health insurance coverage for adults and youths exiting the US criminal justice system, and highlights some potential solutions. Because a high proportion of recently incarcerated people come from low-income backgrounds and experience a high burden of disease, the Medicaid program plays an important role in ensuring access to care for this population. However, the Medicaid Inmate Exclusion Policy, or "inmate exclusion," leads to Medicaid being terminated or suspended upon incarceration, often resulting in gaps in Medicaid coverage at release. These coverage gaps interact with individual-level and population-level factors to influence key health and social outcomes associated with recidivism. Ensuring Medicaid coverage upon release is an important, feasible component of structural change to alleviate health inequities and reduce recidivism. High-yield opportunities to ensure continuous coverage exist at the time of Medicaid suspension or termination and during incarceration prior to release.
ENDING THE PUNISHMENT CYCLE BY REDUCING SENTENCE LENGTH AND RECONSIDERING EVIDENCE-BASED REENTRY PRACTICES
First, reducing sentence lengths for all offense types would significantly reduce recidivism rates and new justice system admissions by minimizing the negative effects of mass incarceration on families and communities. Second, the criminal justice system should adopt a broader conceptualization and implementation of evidence-based reentry practice, including programs that may not have a direct or immediately measurable effect on recidivism. This Article, building on results from an evaluation of a federal reentry court program, highlights the value of reentry programs that minimize intrusive criminal justice system involvement and maximize the provision of services to support a productive life outside prison.
Everyday police work during mental health encounters: A study of call resolutions in Chicago and their implications for diversion.
In recent decades, there has been sustained focus on police responses to persons experiencing mental health crises. The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model has been a seminal effort to improve safety, reduce arrests and enhance the use of emergency psychiatric assessment. With CIT well established, new discussions have emerged around how to further enhance the police-public health interface, including diversion from hospital emergency departments. In this context, this article takes stock of current police practices, utilizing descriptive data on 428 mental health-related calls addressed by Chicago Police over 3 years triangulated with insights from 21 in-depth officer interviews.
The Impact of Felony Diversion in San Francisco
In the traditional criminal justice system, an arrest is followed by multiple decision points determining detention, prosecution, guilt, and sentence. Many jurisdictions across the U.S. are exploring alternative programs and approaches that consider individual needs and assessed risks at each decision point. San Francisco County, California, uses post‐filing pretrial diversion programs as alternatives to the traditional criminal justice system for defendants based on factors including social and behavioral needs. In this paper, we estimate the impact of a referral to felony pretrial diversion programs on case outcomes and subsequent criminal justice contact.
Integrating a Co-occurring Disorders Intervention in Drug Courts: An Open Pilot Trial
Little research has focused on systematically integrating clinical treatment within existing drug court procedures. This could be particularly useful for clients with substance use disorders, who comprise those on court dockets and often have co-existing mental health issues. This article reports on the preliminary outcomes of integrating MISSION-Criminal Justice (MISSION-CJ), a co-occurring mental health and substance use wraparound intervention, within two Massachusetts drug courts. In this open pilot, clients completed intake and 6-month follow-up assessments.
Mental Health Pretrial Diversion: A Retroactive Application of a Mental Health Pretrial Diversion Program Is Allowed
The article discusses the Supreme Court of California case People v. Frahs which deals with a mental health pretrial diversion program. It reports the counts of second-degree robbery charged against Eric Frahs who later introduced testimony regardinghis mental health. The court ruled that the statute creating a mental health pretrial diversion program can be applied retroactively due to the ameliorative effect that it could bring.
A Multisite Evaluation of Prosecutor-Led Pretrial Diversion: Effects on Conviction, Incarceration, and Recidivism
Recent years have witnessed a resurgence of interest in prosecutor-led pretrial diversion programs, yet up-to-date research on the effectiveness of these programs is lacking. Participants in four prosecutor-led diversion programs, Cook County, IL (separate analyses for misdemeanor and felony participants), Milwaukee County, WI (two distinct programs varying in participant risk level and treatment intensity), and Chittenden County, VT, were propensity-score matched to comparison defendants (total n = 5,040). All programs yielded a significant decrease in instant case conviction (mean odds ratio = .12) and use of jail sentences (mean odds ratio = .33). There was also a trend toward reduced re-arrest at 2 years (mean odds ratio = .79). Three of four diversion programs significantly delayed onset of first re-arrest. Taken together, results support the effectiveness of a diverse set of prosecutor-led pretrial diversion programs that varied in charge severity, participant risk level, and program duration and intensity.
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A Specialized Treatment Court for Veterans with Trauma Exposure: Implications for the Field
This study examines the efficacy of providing a Veterans Treatment Court specialized docket to trauma-affected veterans. Eighty-Six veterans enrolled in a jail diversion and trauma recovery Veterans Treatment Court program. Veteran participants were interviewed at baseline, 6- and 12-months to determine if the program led to improvements in jail recidivism, psychiatric symptoms, quality of life, and recovery. The results suggest that veteran's involved in the Veterans Treatment Court programs experienced significant improvement in PTSD, depression, substance abuse, overall functioning, emotional wellbeing, relationships with others, recovery status, social connectedness, family functioning, and sleep.
Targeted sympathy in "whore court": Criminal justice actors' perceptions of prostitution diversion programs
Using interview and focus group data (N = 44) from three study sites, we locate prostitution diversion program (PDP) professionals within logics of punishment and governance. While critical research on problem‐solving justice emphasizes professionals' performative and quasi‐therapeutic roles, inadequate attention has been paid to the contradictory logics of their roles. Involvement in a diversion program reinforces underlying assumptions about whom they are working with and what those people need, in ways that we argue require critical distance. Professionals exploit the paradox of assistance through coercion, and exhibit what we identify as "targeted sympathy." Targeted sympathy enhances the ability of these professionals to use their discretion to help their clients, but it also elevates a narrow set of acceptable problems and interventions. Created with an understanding of street‐based sex workers as victims, PDPs also rely on hyper‐responsibilization, expecting defendants to bootstrap themselves over systemic hurdles with virtually no resources.
THERAPEUTIC DISCIPLINE: DRUG COURTS, FOUCAULT, AND THE POWER OF THE NORMALIZING GAZE
Drug treatment courts represent a paradigm shift in the American criminal justice system. By focusing on providing drug treatment services to low-level offenders with severe use disorders rather than sentencing them to a term of incarceration, drug courts represent a return to a more rehabilitative model for dealing with individuals ensnared by the criminal justice system and away from the retributive model that dictated punishment in the latter half of the twentieth century. The existing scholarship exploring how drug treatment courts function has been largely atheoretical, and past attempts to harmonize theory to drug treatment courts fail to demonstrate how these institutions normalize offenders prior to reintegration into society.
‘I Have Different Goals Than you, we Can’t be a Team': Navigating the Tensions of a Courtroom Workgroup in a Prostitution Diversion Program
This study explores how professional stakeholders navigate individual and institutional goals, ethical standards, and perspectives within the courtroom workgroup of a prostitution diversion program. We draw from semi-structured qualitative interviews of current and/or past professional stakeholders (N = 22) and past program participants (N = 3). Though collaboration and consensus building among workgroups is a core tenet of problem-solving courts, findings from this study reflect a more complicated landscape. Respondent interviews illustrate the centrality of collaboration and role blurring; the necessity of reciprocity and balance in the team; challenges of role delineation; diversity in understandings about acceptable professional behaviour; and the protective techniques some stakeholders use to shield current and future participants from harm.

Suggested Search Terms: Rehabilitative Programs

Copy, paste, and combine these 25 suggested search terms to create your search string and find resources to complete your assignment on criminal justice rehabilitation programs. Use advanced search feature to use the operator "AND" more easily.

1. DE "Criminal Justice" OR DE "Criminal justice system"

2. rehabilitative

3. rehabilitation

4. rehabilitation programs

5. intervention programs

6. diversion programs

7. prisoner reentry

8. reentry programs

9. drug courts or drug treatment courts

10. family reunification

11. mental health courts

12. mental health programs

13. substance abuse treatment

14. crisis Intervention

15. baby and mother

16. prostitution

17. prostitution diversion program

18. vocational training

19. youth services

20. restorative justice programs

21. adult treatment programs

22. educational programs

23. community reintegration programs

24. life skills training

25. cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

Use a combination of keywords with the "advanced search" feature to create an effective search string of keywords like this: DE "Criminal Justice" OR DE "Criminal justice system" AND Drug Courts AND Women

Even as simple as DE "Criminal Justice" AND Vocational Training

DE "Criminal Justice" AND rehabilitative

Featured Article Brief Abstracts: Drug Courts and Substance Abuse Treatment

A debate on whether drug courts be opened in India: Considerations and pragmatic suggestions
The aim of this debate is to critically debate the utility, applicability, and feasibility of drug courts in India. This is a theoretical debate based on the existing evidence and considerations of ground realities in the country. There is enough evidence that drug courts are effective in decreasing substance use and decreasing rearrests.
DRUG COURTS: THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM ROLLS THE ROCK
The United States leads the entire world in both the gross number of incarcerated individuals, and also the rate at which we lock up our offenders.2 Most of those incarcerated in our nation's prisons and jails are substance-abusing non-violent offenders who are likely destined to return to substance abuse on their release and to re-offend...
Improving Drug Courts: A Preliminary Study
This paper discusses a pilot study which seeks to analyze the feasibility of connecting a website, drughelp.care, developed at the host institution of the co-authors, to the everyday operations of local drug courts...
Reflecting on Therapeutic Jurisprudence in the Criminalization of Mental Illness and Addiction
By tying access to needed treatment to criminal justice system involvement, MHCs and DCs can increase criminalization of mental illness, subject individuals to long-term collateral consequences, and interfere with social policy reforms that would dismantle the prison-industrial complex (PIC).
The role of drug courts in promoting desistance and recovery: a merging of therapy and accountability
This paper argues that the drug court is an important criminal justice innovation that has the potential to promote both desistance from criminal behavior and recovery from drug use.
Viewing the Dublin Drug Treatment Court through the Lens of Therapeutic Jurisprudence
This paper argues that while there seems to be a lack of overt engagement with Therapeutic Jurisprudence principles on the part of the Irish judiciary involved with the Dublin Drug Treatment Court, many tenets of the Court actually adhere to Therapeutic Jurisprudence principles, and the authors contend that calls for further empirical analysis.

Featured Articles Diversion Programs

Assessing diversionary approaches for drug misusers in police custody in London: engagement and treatment outcomes as part of the Drug Intervention Programme
Pretrial diversionary schemes for drug misusers should consider enhancing existing case-managed approaches although the model remains geared toward opiate rather than stimulant users.
Disproportionality in Juvenile Justice Diversion: An Examination of Teen Court Peer-Derived Consequences
Juvenile justice diversion programs, such as Teen Court (TC), represent an alternative to traditional juvenile justice responses to youth misbehavior and delinquency.
DOES FLORIDA NEED A STATUTORY DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE (DUI/DWI) PRETRIAL INTERVENTION DIVERSION PROGRAM?
The article analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of four of Florida's driving under the influence (DUI)diversion programs and promotes statutory changes to avoid treating repeat offenders subsequent violations.
The Effectiveness of Mental Health Courts in Reducing Recidivism and Police Contact: A Systematic Review
The purpose of this systematic literature review is to assess the current evidence to address the question, "How effective are mental health courts in reducing recidivism and police contact?"
Mental health courts and forensic assertive community treatment teams as correctional diversion programs.
Problem-solving courts (PSCs) developed as a means of mandating treatment and judicial supervision of certain types of court participants. PSCs have rapidly expanded in number and type over several decades. Mental health courts (MHCs) are a type of PSC that arose in response to the growing number of persons with mental illness within the criminal justice system. Their primary role is to divert individuals with mental illness from incarceration into psychiatric treatment and to reduce recidivism while improving psychosocial functioning of participants.
One Judge's Experience
The article discusses mental health diversion program created in the District of Columbia to address problems of mentally ill criminal offenders through judicial functioning.
Pretrial Request for Mental Health Diversion
This article discusses two legal cases related to mental health diversion. In the first case, the Supreme Court of Arizona clarified that treating physicians can provide expert testimony without violating the One-Expert Rule, as long as their testimony is based on personal observations and actions.
A pilot study of a therapeutic workplace in women arrested for prostitution
This study was a preliminary evaluation of the TW intervention in opioid dependent women arrested for prostitution.