Limitations and Potential in Current Research on Services for People with Mental Illness in the Criminal Justice System

Intervention at the intersection of the mental health and criminal justice systems has followed a small set of service models with limited success and a narrow impact on the quality of treatment available to people with mental illness who experience arrest, court processing, incarceration, and release. In reviewing research on police, court, and corrections interventions, innovation seems to be largely limited to services for select individuals who are deemed worthy of access to treatment.