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Postinstitutional arrests and state hospitalizations of 191 patients placed on conditional release (CONREP group) were compared to those of 44 patients released &om the same califorpia state hospital with no aftercare due to expiration of commiment terms (MAXOUT group). The two groups were not randomly determined but were comparable in demographic characteristics and rates of preprogram arrest. The CONREP group had a significantly lower community-period arrest rate than did the MAX-OUT group (p < .001). Survival rate analyses, using time until arrest and time until revocation as dependent variables, suggested that revocations during the first 240 days of community re-entry reduced the potential arrest rate within the CONREP group. Results were discussed in terms of the " * ' lization hypothesis" as well as the crime-preventive possibilities of the conditional release mechanism.As Bloom, Williams, and Sigelow (1 99 1) recently pointed out, the power to revoke forensic mental health clients h m community settings to hospitals is a key public safety feature of conditional release programs. In California, clients of the statewide Conditional Release Program (CONREP), a system of structured aftercare established by the state legislature (CA Assembly Bill 2390, 1985), can be returned to a state hospital if they do not comply with an extensive list of outpatient treament conditions. These include attendance at weekly individual therapy, weekly group therapy, weekly urine drug tests, and taking prescribed medications. In the same legislation establishing CONREP was a requirement that the Department of Mental Health research this program's effectiveness in minimizing client reoffense.Given the assignment to design this research, the author reviewed the literature and found no study in which the criminal recidivism of "revoke-able" forensic mental health clients was compared to that of a randomly assigned control group of "not revoke-able" persons. Rather, the literature contained usefid but primarily descriptive information about recent conditional release programs, their clients, and recidivism I rhank John Monahan for providing helpful reactions to an earlier version of this paper. Address reprint requests to Mark Wiederanders, Ph.D Depamnent of Mental Health,

This study addressed the understudied topic of community functioning among released insanity acquittees. Items from the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, the Short Form of the Jesness Behavior Checklist, and the U.S. Department of Labor's Current Population Survey were used along with some original items to compose a 78-item behavioral and psychiatric functioning questionnaire. Analysis of clinician ratings of California outpatients (mostly male, White, violent insanity acquittees) produced 12 social, behavioral, and psychiatric scales with acceptable internal and interrater reliabilities. Ratings of clients who subsequently received good discharges were higher on all scales (ps < .01) than were ratings of reoffenders and hospital revokees. Clients improved over time (ps < .01) on the Employment, Social Supports, and Independence and Compliance scales. The questionnaire provides richer information about community outcomes than do recidivism statistics alone.

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