Reducing crime rates using mental health diversion programs
Introduction
People of color have been associated with a crime over time. They are seen as the cause of violence in society, and whenever a crime is committed, they are mostly blamed for it. These crimes are primarily associated with their mental health and seen as a cause for the increased crime rates in society. Mental health diversion programs have been developed to try and reduce crime rates in the nation.
Cognitive behavior theory
This theory focuses on the skills of solving problems and addressing those people who have a mental illness. The cognitive-behavioral treatment program focuses on the behavior and treatment of juvenile offenders that mostly lead to committing a crime and an increase in crime rates. Cognitive behavior therapy teaches individuals who are most affected by mental illness how to alter their action based on the change or diversion of their thinking. Cognitive behavior theory is more effective in addressing an array of disorders among young people, especially African American people. For this program to be active and successful, it requires the youths’ full participation under the program and their family. This way, it helps provide enough data that may lead to the provision of more services to the youths through a specialized court. The cognitive-behavioral theory helps improve the ways of handling mental illness among youth in diversion programs to reduce recidivism and ensure the program’s success.
Mental health is the state that describes how a person thinks, feels, and acts mainly in a challenging situation. Most youths who commit crime have a history of behavioral health problems that could affect how they handle individual cases. These problems can be either mental problems or substance abuse problems that affect their decision making. Most juvenile offenders have at least one behavioral health disorder that could be the leading cause of them committing a crime. The risk of recidivism increases when mental health conditions are involved. 70% of the youth in the juvenile justice system have a mental health disorder. Some of them experience extreme mental health disorders to the point that their ability to think and function properly is wholly impaired. Substance use is directly viewed as one of the factors that cause criminal behavior and can reduce the offender’s response and progress to the program assigned to reduce crime rates.
Juvenile mental health courts
Juvenile mental health courts are an addition to the juvenile justice system. Juvenile mental health courts follow seven characteristics for them to be effective. They have regularly scheduled specialized dockets, less formal style of interaction among the participants in the program and the court officials, age-appropriate screening and assessment for trauma, substance use and mental disorder, team management of juvenile mental health participant, treatment and supervision, system-wide accountability enforced by the juvenile courts, use of graduated incentives and sanctions and last but not least, defined criteria for program success.
Mental health courts use intensive case management and enhanced court monitoring to divert people from committing a crime and improve their mental health. These programs have been developed to divert adults with mental illness from incarceration. Drug court, veteran’s court, and mental health courts are courts established to solve problems associated with mental illness or drug use that cause criminal behavior.
Wraparound services
This is a type of program that may successfully help to reduce recidivism rates and address the issue of mental illness as well as substance use problems. These programs are designed for children and families with complex needs and are seen to have a positive impact on juvenile offenders. Some of the services offered include; special education, substance use treatment, clinical therapy, and caregiver support. However, this program may not be useful if the individual does not have the help of his or her parents or family. An example of wraparound service is the Wraparound Milwaukee, a program designed for juvenile offenders who are currently involved with probation or child welfare services. The program has proven to be effective as the participants showed improvement in their functioning and recidivism reduction.
Diversion programs are created to target high risk or typical high-risk applications. Their primary purpose is to rectify and sanction negative behavior when it emerges but avoid detaining the individual due to their mental illness. The system of care programs has been currently created to work with the youth and their families to allow teenagers to live in a society in peace with other people. Families are involved in the treatment programs and are required to provide regular reports on the individuals’ progress. However, there are gaps within the diversion programs that fail to make them as useful as possible.
Gaps within the diversion programs
The first gap is the assumption that if a child starts medication, they will be cured. This is not the case, as most of these criminal behaviors exist long before the diagnosis made. These individuals should be put under diversion programs as soon as they start showing signs of behavioral disorder. The second gap is about parent involvement in the mental health diversion programs. For the applications to be successful, parents have to be willingly involved in the program in association with the use of medication. The third gap is about the severity of charges at both schools and in the community. Behaviors that are not criminal have been termed as criminal behaviors that have affected the juvenile justice system. Mental illness and any negative responses have been termed criminal behavior and are being punished unlawfully. Schools must be partners with the mental health care department to identify such acts and how to go about it.
The fourth gap is aftercare services. Aftercare services supervise the transition of the youth to the community after they have completed the diversion program. Community based probation programs tend to release individuals with no more assistance with the department, which creates a gap in the program. The fifth gap relates to screening tools used to determine various facts about each juvenile. Not every department has tools to identify the affected individuals’ mental illness, which becomes a problem on the appropriate and effective programs to use.
Advantages and disadvantages of mental health diversion programs
Some of the advantages include; reduced recidivism rates where the individuals get more help compared to being incarcerated. Improvement in the lives of offenders and reduced incarceration costs as mental health courts help cut costs by keeping the offenders in community-based programs. The disadvantages of mental health diversion programs include; mandatory medication. Some people believe that it is not ethical to force an individual into medicine. This leaves the offenders with no choice as they are threatened to be incarcerated. The waiting list has been long, as mental health disorders have increased. It may take months for an offender to begin treatment. More extended sentencing requirements due to waiting lists may make the offender prolong his or her stay in the mental health court.
Conclusion
Mental health diversion programs have proven to be useful in reducing crime rates within African Americans. The treatment programs have helped individuals function more effectively, make better decisions, and reduce criminal activities in the community. The support of family members is also required to make these programs more productive and help the individuals complete their treatment programs successfully.
References
Hiday, Virginia Aldridge, and Mairead Eastin Moloney. “Mental illness and the criminal justice system.” The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of health, illness, behavior, and society (2014): 1-5.
Lamberti, J. Steven. “Preventing criminal recidivism through mental health and criminal justice collaboration.” Psychiatric Services 67.11 (2016): 1206-1212.
Wilson, Holly A., and Robert D. Hoge. “The effect of youth diversion programs on recidivism: A meta-analytic review.” Criminal justice and behavior 40.5 (2013): 497-518.
Scott, David A., et al. “Effectiveness of criminal justice liaison and diversion services for offenders with mental disorders: a review.” Psychiatric Services 64.9 (2013): 843-849.
Hiday, Virginia Aldigé, Heathcote W. Wales, and Bradley Ray. “Effectiveness of a short-term mental health court: Criminal recidivism one year postexit.” Law and Human Behavior 37.6 (2013): 401.
Belenko, Steven, Matthew Hiller, and Leah Hamilton. “Treating substance use disorders in the criminal justice system.” Current psychiatry reports 15.11 (2013): 414.