ABSTRACT
People with mental illnesses are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system (Fazel and Danesh 2002). Approximately one in seven men (15 per cent) and one in three women (31 per cent) detained in jails in the United States suffer from severe and often disabling illnesses, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression (Steadman et al. 2009). The majority experience co-occurring substance abuse disorders (see Prins and Draper 2009). Many of these men and women become inextricably entangled in the criminal justice system. Compared to their relatively healthy counterparts, offenders with mental illnesses are incarcerated longer and placed in supermax or solitary confinement more often (Lovell et al. 2007; Toch and Adams 2002; for a review, see Fellner 2006). After they are released from prison, these offenders are two times more likely to be reincarcerated than offenders without mental illnesses (Eno Louden and Skeem, in press).
