Qualitative insights into mental health treatment through telemedicine during the COVID-19 crisis: a natural experiment in community mental health centers.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing mental health challenges and introduced new ones, particularly among vulnerable populations such as individuals within the criminal justice system, who disproportionately experienced employment, financial, and housing issues. As mandatory lockdowns and social distancing mandates were implemented, the United States saw unprecedented interruptions to treatment. Telemedicine emerged as a transformative tool in alleviating new and existing treatment barriers.

Treating Trauma in Criminal Justice-Involved with SMI: "Trauma Is a Huge Part of It".

Individuals with serious mental illness are both disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system and more likely to experience correlates with offending (e.g., trauma, substance abuse, and homelessness).

Method of identification: Catching serial killers.

Despite contemporary media portrayals, violent crime has continued to decrease in recent decades. Consistent with traditional types of violent crime (e.g.

Examining changes in procedural justice and their influence on problem-solving court outcomes.

The number of problem-solving courts has grown substantially since the mid-1990s. Research consistently indicates that participation in these courts lowers recidivism, which is often attributed to defendants' increased perceptions of procedural justice in these programs. Yet, prior studies are limited in their focus, often examining interactions with the judge in a single court or examining defendant perceptions and outcomes at a single time point.

What Happens to Mental Health Court Noncompleters?

Mental health court (MHC) research consistently finds that defendants who successfully complete and graduate from the court are less likely to recidivate than those who do not. However, research has not assessed what happens to these noncompleters once they are sent back to traditional court. Using follow-up data on six years of noncompleters from pre-adjudication MHC, we examine what happens to these defendants in traditional court.