ABSTRACT
The prevalence of impairing mental health problems among people incarcerated is between four and seven times greater than the non-incarcerated population, and the prevalence of Substance Use Disorder among those incarcerated is over six times greater than in the general population. Because people with behavioral health conditions consume significant criminal justice system resources at every point in the system, governmental policy and funding systems have placed a growing focus on the prevalence, outcomes, and solutions related to serving individuals with co-occurring disorders who engage in the criminal justice system.
This chapter focuses on two large-scale federally funded multi-site studies that started nearly ten years apart from one another and that evaluated different interventions targeting individuals with co-occurring disorders who were involved in the criminal justice system. The first evaluated jail and criminal justice diversion programs, and the second comprised three separate studies that evaluated organizational and systems level interventions for behavioral health services in criminal justice systems.
