This application requests funding for a developing services research center that focuses exclusively on mental health (MH) services issues that arise when persons with mental illness have encounters with the criminal justice (CJ) system. The Mental Health Services and Criminal Justice (MHS&CJ) Research Center proposed here is designed (a) to improve the ways in which the mental health and criminal justice (MH-CJ) systems respond to the needs of persons with mental illness and (b) to inform the policies that are intended to affect these responses. This objective will be accomplished by building a multidisciplinary team of researchers that will communicate with and respond to practitioners, policy makers, advocacy groups, and consumers. The center will be situated at Rutgers University (RU) and co-directed by Drs. Nancy Wolff (RU) and William Fisher (University of Massachusetts Medical School, UMMS). The Rutgers site will provide the structure for research and training in MH-CJ systems dynamics and will coordinate all Center-related activities. The multidisciplinary team will be situated in a """"""""borderless"""""""" research environment that will include researchers and research sites located around the country. Central to the Center's mission will be the recruitment of junior and senior researchers across the U.S. who are interested in developing and applying their expertise to issues related to the MH-CJ systems dynamic. Together, under the Center's auspices, they will pursue rigorous interdisciplinary MH-CJ services research. The Center's research agenda will focus on two areas. Precursors to the criminal justice system encounter is the first area of research. Our emphasis here is on the individual with mental illness and how that person comes to the attention of the CJ system. Understanding this dynamic is central to the development of prevention and desistance strategies. Processing dynamics is the second area of research. Here we will focus on how the CJ system responds to the individual's mental illness as the person moves through the CJ continuum from court to jail/prison to the community. Center-sponsored research will address the issues of identification and evaluation of mental illness, its treatment inside the jail and in the weeks post-release, and the different policy initiatives and innovations that attempt to impact the CJ system's response to mental illness. It is expected that the proposed developing center will develop a conceptually coherent research agenda and supporting methods, and a series of research initiatives that will culminate in the submission and funding of grant applications that provide findings that will improve practice.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Exploratory Grants (P20)
Project #
5P20MH066170-04
Application #
6945659
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZMH1-CRB-B (05))
Program Officer
Juliano-Bult, Denise M
Project Start
2002-09-16
Project End
2007-07-31
Budget Start
2005-08-01
Budget End
2006-07-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2005
Total Cost
$582,456
Indirect Cost
Name
Rutgers University
Department
Type
Organized Research Units
DUNS #
001912864
City
New Brunswick
State
NJ
Country
United States
Zip Code
08901
White, Helene Raskin; Fite, Paula; Pardini, Dustin et al. (2013) Moderators of the dynamic link between alcohol use and aggressive behavior among adolescent males. J Abnorm Child Psychol 41:211-22
Lee, Chioun; Cronley, Courtney; White, Helene Raskin et al. (2012) Racial differences in the consequences of childhood maltreatment for adolescent and young adult depression, heavy drinking, and violence. J Adolesc Health 50:443-9
Wolff, Nancy; Frueh, B Christopher; Shi, Jing et al. (2011) Trauma exposure and mental health characteristics of incarcerated females self-referred to specialty PTSD treatment. Psychiatr Serv 62:954-8
Wolff, Nancy; Shi, Jing; Siegel, Jane A (2009) Patterns of victimization among male and female inmates: evidence of an enduring legacy. Violence Vict 24:469-84
Wolff, Nancy; Shi, Jing (2009) Feelings of safety inside prison among male inmates with different victimization experiences. Violence Vict 24:800-16
Wolff, Nancy; Jing Shi (2009) Contextualization of physical and sexual assault in male prisons: incidents and their aftermath. J Correct Health Care 15:58-77; quiz 80-2
Wolff, Nancy; Jing Shi; Bachman, Ronet (2008) Measuring victimization inside prisons: questioning the questions. J Interpers Violence 23:1343-62
Blitz, Cynthia L; Wolff, Nancy; Shi, Jing (2008) Physical victimization in prison: the role of mental illness. Int J Law Psychiatry 31:385-93
Watson, Amy C; Morabito, Melissa Schaefer; Draine, Jeffrey et al. (2008) Improving police response to persons with mental illness: a multi-level conceptualization of CIT. Int J Law Psychiatry 31:359-68
Fisher, William H; Wolff, Nancy; Grudzinskas Jr, Albert J et al. (2007) Drug-related arrests in a cohort of public mental health service recipients. Psychiatr Serv 58:1448-53

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