Misdemeanor Arrestees With Mental Health Needs: Diversion and Outpatient Services as a Recidivism Reduction Strategy.

Individuals with mental illnesses who are arrested for criminal activity cycle between criminal justice and mental health systems at disproportionately high rates. Studying recidivism of this population has been difficult due to separate system data bases. This study compared recidivism outcomes of 102 adults with mental illness who were arrested for a misdemeanor offense.

School bullying, low self-control, and opportunity.

The theory of low self-control has been shown to be a valid predictor of a wide variety of criminal and deviant behaviors. However, a limited number of studies were conducted to understand the relationship between low self-control and bullying and the effects of opportunity factors (i.e.

Seroconversion risk perception among jail populations: a call for gender-specific HIV prevention programming.

The prevalence of HIV/AIDS infection among prisoners is 3 to 4 times higher than in the U.S. population.

Research and services partnerships: a partnership to develop a utilization-focused evaluation plan for a criminal justice diversion program.

More than 100,000 offenders in the Texas correctional system have a mental illness, which represents about 19% of the state's correctional population, including offenders in prison and under community correctional supervision. To reduce these numbers, a leading mental health service provider established the Community Reintegration Program (CRP) to divert misdemeanor offenders with mental illness to community-based treatment. This column describes a collaborative process between the University of Texas at San Antonio and community partners to develop a utilization-focused evaluation plan for the CRP that would benefit all stakeholders.

Factors associated with recidivism among offenders with mental illness.

This study examined factors that explained or predicted recidivism of offenders who were mentally impaired and were under various correctional interventions. Offenders in a residential treatment program and specialized probation group, specialized probation alone, and mentally ill offenders who had served time in jail were examined. In comparison to the other two groups, the residential treatment offenders had a more extensive criminal history and were thus more likely to fail on supervision as well as to recidivate after supervision ended.

The significance of the victim advocate for domestic violence victims in municipal court.

Previous research has examined factors that influence felony case prosecution in domestic violence cases, but few have analyzed how victim participation, or lack thereof, may affect the defendant's case outcome in misdemeanors. This study used 384 municipal cases from a specialized domestic violence court to examine the role of the victim advocate and variables that had an impact on victim participation with prosecution and case disposition. To ensure that decisions in all cases were consistent, all decision makers in the sample involved the same group: the court advocate, prosecutor, and judge.

Attorney views on the use of private agencies for probation supervision and treatment.

The exponential rise in probation caseloads has necessitated that some jurisdictions contract with private probation agencies and community-based private treatment providers. Regulations that monitor private providers are ill defined or absent, leaving standards open to broad interpretation. Attorneys in one jurisdiction that used private providers were surveyed to measure their beliefs about private treatment providers for people sentenced to probation.