This book is about the need for social reform programs along with the Department of Corrections to gain more appropriate and more satisfying treatments for affected individuals. Studies have shown that more inmates, upon release from incarceration, have little to no resources that help with assistance of mental health treatment, employment, housing, and education. Redirecting and modifying upon release would help the inmate not only with what’s out in the community to face but also in help...

Every year, hundreds of thousands of jailed Americans leave prison and return to society. Largely uneducated, unskilled, often without family support, and with the stigma of a prison record hanging over them, many if not most will experience serious social and psychological problems after release. Fewer than one in three prisoners receive substance abuse or mental health treatment while incarcerated, and each year fewer and fewer participate in the dwindling number of vocational or educati...

Crime in the United States has fluctuated considerably over the past thirty years, as have the policy approaches to deal with it. During this time criminologists and other scholars have helped to shed light on the role of incarceration, prevention, drugs, guns, policing, and numerous other aspects to crime control. Yet the latest research is rarely heard in public discussions and is often missing from the desks of policymakers. This book accessibly summarizes the latest scientific informat...

"[T]his book provides practical practice guidance as well as...interviewing and assessment tips....[A]n invaluable source of information for students, practitioners, researchers and educators."-Karen M. Sowers, PhDDean, University of TennesseeCollege of Social WorkRegardless of their field of practice, all social workers must understand how legal issues impact the financial, psychological, emotional, and social concerns that their clie...

The U.S. is the world´s biggest jailor and one of the most affluent murderous countries, and yet its citizens pay more taxes to sustain law and order than their European counterparts. Yet, the U.S. has the most data in the world on the use of incarceration and its failure. Its researchers have identified more projects able to prevent violence than the rest of the world put together. Its legislators have access to pioneering data banks on cost effective ways to use taxes to reduce crime. We...

Over the past two decades, violent crime has become one of the most serious domestic problems in the United States. Approximately 13 million people (nearly 5% of the U.S. population) are victims of crime every year, and of that, approximately one and a half million are victims of violent crime. Ensuring quality of life for victims of crime is therefore a major challenge facing policy makers and mental health providers.Helping Victims of Violent Crime grounds victim assista...

Problem Solving Courts explores a relatively new approach to criminal justice-one that can have a powerful impact on how convicts connect with their communities. Problem solving courts, born out of the drug court movement in the 1980s, are run by judges who, with the assistance of law enforcement agents and mental health workers, meet with convicts on a weekly basis to talk about their treatment. Treatment programs often include therapy, in addition to the possibility of incarcera...

Over the past forty years, the criminal justice system in the United States has engaged in a very expensive policy failure, attempting to punish its way to public safety, with dismal results. So-called "tough on crime" policies have not only failed to effectively reduce crime, recidivism, and victimization but also created an incredibly inefficient system that routinely fails the public, taxpayers, crime victims, criminal offenders, their families, and their communities.Strategies ...

Written by a committee of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, People With Mental Illness in the Criminal Justice System: Answering a Cry for Help represents the collective wisdom of leaders in community psychiatry and is the third in a series of successful publications that have used Dear Abby letters as source material. The letters, submitted by readers with experience with mental illness and the criminal justice system, constitute a rich, real-world repository for the case stori...

Forensic psychiatry and psychology involve specialized practice with unique patients, including children, the incarcerated, and involuntary clients, presenting practitioners with specific ethics challenges. In this volume, Ezra E. H. Griffith offers a selection of engaging essays that guide practicing forensic specialists through particular situations that often result in ethics dilemmas.In chapters covering topics such as forensic practice and critical feminist theory, neuroethics...

PRESERVING A LIFE OF PEACE AND DIGNITY FOR THE AGINGThis ground-breaking volume offers a new, collaborative approach geared to enhance case review, improve victim safety, raise abuser accountability, and promote system change.Sharing the common goal of promoting elder victim safety, experts in adult protective services, law enforcement, prosecution, health care, advocacy, and civil justice have formed a unique, multidisciplinary team approach to tackle the ...

Today’s high recidivism rates, combined with the rising costs of jails and prisons, are increasingly seen as problems that must be addressed on both moral and financial grounds. Research on prison and jail reentry typically focuses on barriers stemming from employment, housing, mental health, and substance abuse issues from the perspective of offenders returning to urban areas. This book explores the largely neglected topic of the specific challenges inmates experience when leaving jail an...