Decriminalizing Mental Illness

Reports reveal an increase in the number of individuals with serious mental illness in jails, prisons and forensic hospitals. Despite the wide-ranging and devastating consequences of this 'criminalization' of mental illness, there remains a lack of information on the subject as well as on the provision of care for these patients. This important new book fills a gap in the literature by examining topics such as: the history and policy factors related to criminalization; original research on forensic populations; pharmacological and psychological treatment strategies; and principles and guidelines for diversion out of the criminal justice system. Contributions from leading experts in the field further our understanding of this important subject, offering advice on how to provide humane care for patients. A must have for all mental health clinicians including psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, rehabilitation therapists, and mental health nurses. A useful tool for mental health administrators and policy makers.

List of Contributors; Part I. Introduction/Description of the Problem: 1. Balancing the Pendulum: Rethinking the Role of Institutionalization in the Treatment of Serious Mental Illness; 2. Deinstitutionalization and Other Factors in the Criminalization of Persons with Serious Mental Illness and How it Is Being Addressed; 3. A Brief History of the Criminalization of Mental Illness; 4. A Social History of Psychotic Illness; 5. Forensic Patients in State Psychiatric Hospitals: 1999-2016; 6. A Survey of National Trends in Psychiatric Patients found Incompetent to Stand Trial: Reasons for the Re-Institutionalization of People with Serious Mental Illness in the United States; 7. Forensic Psychiatry and Mental Health in Australia: An Overview; 8. Community Forensic Psychiatric Services in England and Wales; 9. A Longitudinal Description of Incompetent to Stand Trial Admissions to a State Hospital; Part II. Solutions: 10. Jail Diversion: The Miami Model; 11. Jail Diversion: A Practical Primer; 12. Principles and Practices of Risk Assessment in Mental Health Jail Diversion Programs; 13. Decriminalization in Action: Lessons from the Los Angeles Model; 14. Economics of Decriminalizing Mental Illness: When Doing the Right Thing Ironically Costs Less; 15. Decriminalising Severe Mental Illness by Reducing Risk of Contact with the Criminal Justice System, Including for Forensic Patients; 16. The Cal-DSH Diversion Guidelines; 17. Decriminalizing Mental Illness: Specialized Policing Responses; 18. Dopamine Antagonist Antipsychotics in Diverted Forensic Populations; 19. Monitoring and Improving Antipsychotic Adherence in Outpatient Forensic Diversion Programs; 20. Pharmacological Treatment of Violence in Schizophrenia; 21. Neurocognition and Social Cognition Training as Treatments for Violence and Aggression in People with Severe Mental Illness; 22. Examining Violence Among Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity State Hospital Inpatients Across Multiple Timepoints: The Roles of Criminogenic Risk Factors and Psychiatric Symptoms; 23. Criminogenic Risk and Mental Health: A Complicated Relationship; 24. Implementation of a Specialized Treatment Program to Reduce Violence in a Forensic Population; 25. From Trauma-Blind to Trauma-Informed: Re-thinking Criminalization and the Role of Trauma in Persons with Serious Mental Illness Population; 26. The Indistinguishables: Determining Appropriate Environments for Justice Involved Individuals; 27. Breaking Down Long-Term Chronic Aggression within a Forensic Hospital System; 28. Tipping the Scales of Justice: The Role of Forensic Evaluations in the Criminalization of Mental Illness; 29. Competency to Stand Trial and Criminalization: An Overview of the Research; 30. Risk Factors for Recidivism in Individuals Receiving Community Sentences: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis; 31. Developing Policies for Adult Sexual Minorities with Mental Health Needs in Secured Settings (Review article); 32. An Overview of Jail-Based Competency Restoration; 33. Fixated Threat Assessment Centres: Preventing Harm and Facilitating Care in Public Figure Threat Cases and Those Thought to Be at Risk of Lone-Actor Grievance-Fuelled Violence; 34. Decriminalizing LGBTQ+: Reproducing and Resisting Mental Health Inequities; 35. Building a Therapeutic Relationship between Probation Officers and Probationers with Serious Mental Illnesses; 36. Length of Stay for Inpatient Incompetent to Stand Trial (IST) Patients: Importance of Clinical and Demographic Variables; 37. Severe Mentally Ill Patients: Our Global Migrants: Neuroethical Issues in Psychiatry and Pharmacology Today: A Brief Manifesto towards The World Symposium 2021; Index.

Katherine Warburton is Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California, Davis and Medical Director and Deputy Director of Clinical Operations at California Department of State Hospitals.
Stephen M. Stahl is Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at the University of California, Riverside, and Honorary Visiting Senior Fellow in Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge.