Legal System Involvement and Costs for Persons in Treatment for Severe Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders

Impact of assertive community treatment and client characteristics on criminal justice outcomes in dual disorder homeless individuals

“…Consistent with previous research, prior criminal behaviour was the best predictor of subsequent criminal behaviour in dual-disorder individuals (Benda, 1993;Clark et al, 1999;Solomon and Draine, 1999). Younger participants engaged in more criminal behaviour on two of the six outcome variables, although past research has found no relationship between age and current criminal behaviour (Benda, 1993;Clark et al, 1999).…”

“…Younger participants engaged in more criminal behaviour on two of the six outcome variables, although past research has found no relationship between age and current criminal behaviour (Benda, 1993;Clark et al, 1999). Race did not predict four of the six criminal justice measures replicating other studies of dual-disorder samples (Benda, 1993;Clark et al, 1999). Gender did not predict any of the criminal justice variables; past research had produced mixed results (Benda, 1993;Clark et al, 1999;Solomon and Draine, 1999).…”

The Cost of Incarceration: A Descriptive Analysis of Low-income Mentally Ill Misdemeanor Offenders in DeKalb County, Georgia (2012)

“…People with mental health conditions are arrested relatively frequently and housed in jails for significant periods of time in relation to minor, non-violent offenses, compared to those with no mental illness [1][2][3][4][5]. As a result, they impose substantial costs on the judicial system [6].…”

“…Mental illness can manifest in behaviors that themselves can be perceived as criminal offenses, for example disorderly conduct [4,7], and result in relatively lower socio-economic status, including higher rates of unemployment and homelessness [8,9]. Despite higher rates of arrest, the majority of mentally ill offenders in the jail commit minor crimes, with only an estimated 27% having committed violent offenses [3,8].…”

“…Evidence on the cost-effectiveness of interventions aimed at mentally ill offenders has been mixed. Several studies have shown that effective treatment is associated with lower legal system costs [3,23]. Studies have also shown that jail diversion programs which send mentally ill offenders into treatment resulted in reductions in the durations of incarceration and number of arrests [24,25] and were cost-saving or cost neutral [14].…”