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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 3:39 am
Time: 3:39 am
Results for mentally ill offenders (vermont, u.s.)
1 results foundAuthor: Wicklund, Peter Title: Chittenden County Mental Health Court: Outcome Evaluation Summary: The Chittenden County Mental Health Court (CMHC) began operation in January 2003. It is a program for adults who have committed a crime and are having difficulty with issues related to severe and persistent mental illness but are deemed competent to stand trial. These mental illnesses could include schizophrenia, paranoia, clinical depression, and borderline personality disorders. The CMHC accepts participants with any mental health diagnoses, including personality disorders and intellectual disabilities, but the majority of participants also have a co-occurring substance use condition as well. Typically, their offenses are crimes such as disorderly conduct, unlawful trespass, drug possession, burglary, and retail theft. Occasionally, the court will hear felonies, such as arson, DWI, and assault, though all cases must first be approved by the State’s Attorney’s office. An outcome evaluation attempts to determine the effects that a program has on participants. In the case of the Chittenden County Mental Health Court (CMHC) the objective of this outcome evaluation was to determine the extent to which the CMHC reduced recidivism among program participants. For this outcome evaluation, the study cohort was divided into two groups – subjects who successfully completed the CMHC program (n=56), and a segment that was terminated or withdrew from the program (n=43). Six other subjects who were currently active in the CMHC were also on the participant list provided by the Court Administrator’s Office, but they were not included in this report. During the study period, 57% of CMHC participants (56 of 99) successfully graduated from the CMHC. An indicator of post-program criminal behavior that is commonly used in outcome evaluations of criminal justice programs is the number of participants who recidivate -- that is, are convicted of a crime after they complete the program. An analysis of the criminal history records of the 99 subjects who were referred to the CMHC from March 21, 2003 to May 24, 2012, was conducted using the Vermont criminal history records of participants as provided by the Vermont Criminal Information Center (VCIC) at the Vermont Department of Public Safety. The Vermont criminal history record on which the recidivism analysis was based included all charges and convictions prosecuted in a Vermont Superior Court-Criminal Division that were available as of July 13, 2012. The criminal records on which the study was based do not contain federal prosecutions, out-of-state prosecutions, or traffic tickets. SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS 1. The Chittenden County Mental Health Court (CMHC) appears to be a promising approach for reducing recidivism among participants who completed the program. An analysis of the Vermont criminal records for the 99 study subjects shows that significantly fewer CMHC graduates were reconvicted of some type of crime as compared to the subjects who were terminated/withdrew from the program (25.0% versus 51.2%). 2. The CMHC was shown to be effective in producing graduates that remained conviction free in the community during their first year after leaving the program. Approximately 82% of the successful graduates of the CMHC were conviction-free during their first year after leaving the program. The success rate dropped to 72% for the study group that was terminated or withdrew from the CMHC. 3. The CMHC appears to be a promising approach for reducing the number and severity of reconvictions for participants who completed CMHC. The reconviction rate of the successful CMHC participants was less than half the rate for the participants that were unsuccessful (91 compared to 225 reconvictions per 100, respectively). 4. The CMHC recidivists from both study groups tended to commit a majority of their post-CMHC crime in Chittenden County. 5. Subject characteristics that were found to have some correlation with the tendency to recidivate were the Age at First Conviction/Contact, Age at Referral to CMHC, the Base Charge Sentence Type, and Total Prior Misdemeanors. However, further analysis showed that these correlations were not strong enough to result in a useful model that could be used as a predictor of recidivism. Details: Northfield Falls, VT: Vermont Center for Justice Research, 2013. 23p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 2, 2013 at: http://www.vcjr.org/reports/reportscrimjust/reports/CMHCreport_files/CMHC%20Outcome%20Eval%20Rpt.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.vcjr.org/reports/reportscrimjust/reports/CMHCreport_files/CMHC%20Outcome%20Eval%20Rpt.pdf Shelf Number: 128186 Keywords: Mental Health CourtsMentally Ill Offenders (Vermont, U.S.)Problem-Solving CourtsRecidivism |