How the CSG Justice Center is ‘Stepping Up’ for Behavioral Health
The line between health issues and legal issues is frequently blurred, particularly with mental illness and substance use disorders. How can we un-blur that line? How do we get people the help they need while maintaining public safety? Host Sue Humphreys talks with Ayesha Delany-Brumsey of the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center and Stepping Up Initiative to examine health issues in the justice system and what’s making a difference.
Stop! Collaborate and Listen … for Effective Pretrial Reform
You can’t do it alone. When it comes to pretrial reform, every jurisdiction in every state is facing different challenges, but one truth is universal: Success takes cooperation. When a formal or informal group such as a Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee (CJCC) convenes regularly, communities see crime decrease, pretrial jail stays shorten, and criminal justice costs decline. These groups are collaborative boards that help solve both specific problems and systemic issues. But, you don’t have to have a CJCC to start pulling together the right people and working toward change.
The Trouble with Validation
Validation. You’ve heard about it over the years. You know it’s a best practice. But can you explain it to your agency’s stakeholders? Many criminal justice practitioners, even those of us who have undergone a validation study, are still fuzzy on the details. And while many of the details can be safely left up to the researchers and scientists, as practitioners, we still need to be conversant enough on validation to answer questions from our stakeholders.
Let’s Flip the Script on Public Perception of CO
The police are heroes on the front line. The district attorney is hard-nosed but fair. The defense is a champion for the underdog. The judge is wise, strong and authoritative. And the correctional officer is a corrupt, violent brute. Sound familiar? Television shows, movies, and even media coverage frequently stick to the same tropes, and it’s the exception, not the rule, to see correctional officers doing the right thing. In fact, in a study of media coverage of correctional officers in the U.S., researchers found that correctional officers are portrayed negatively nearly 80% of the time. So what can we, as the hardworking professionals who ARE doing the right thing, do to counteract this perception?
Be Part of the Solution: Stop Criminalizing Mental Illness
In every county in the U.S. that has both a jail and a county psychiatric facility, more people with mental illnesses are in jail than in the hospital. Forty-four states report that their jails and prisons house more people with mental illnesses than their largest state psychiatric hospital. We have a problem in this country, and it’s not just a jail problem. It’s a systemic problem. Mental illness is being criminalized, and it’s up to everyone involved in the justice system to stop it.
A Leading Voice in Pretrial Reform? Yours.
Chances are, 60% of the people in your jail haven't been convicted of a crime and are still awaiting trial. Around 30% are in your custody because they are unable to pay a cash bond. The courts may be at the center of the pretrial reform debate, but jails are at the center of the ongoing repercussions of those decisions.
