J. Pann

Best Practices in Law Enforcement Crisis Interventions with the Mentally Ill

This chapter describes the BPM for teaching police to recognize and avoid arresting the mentally ill and getting them the appropriate mental health services.

A Review of Best Practices for the Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Jail

This chapter discusses the need for specific kinds of short-term mental health treatment in jails as opposed to prisons. Although there is a vast amount of information about the treatment of persons with mental illness in prisons where inmates are there for a defined period of time, there is a dearth of literature on treatment in jails where inmates are often unpredictably in and out.

Best Practice Model

This chapter describes how a forensically involved person who is mentally ill might go through a criminal justice system (CJS) that uses the proposed Best Practice Model (BPM). We understand that the costs of some of what we are recommending may exceed the current budget allocated for this population. We are also aware that the people who will utilize these services have tremendous needs in many areas besides medical and psychological, such as housing and other types of social services. Nonetheless, we have developed our BPM as the theoretical model, as if there were no constraints, understanding that all communities will have to prioritize its finite resources.

Problem-Solving Courts

Therapeutic courts, also known as problem-solving courts, have been formed for many specific types of offenders, such as Drug Court, Domestic Violence courts, Community Courts, habitual offender courts, and Mental Health court. The commonality in all of these courts is that the focus is generally on treatment rather than punishment.

Competency Restoration Programs

Competency restoration programs have had various features in common but few are comprehensive in trying to restore or build competency in those people found incompetent to proceed to trial. A model program outline is proposed here.