NCJ Number
131196
Date Published
Unknown
Length
20 pages
Annotation
The Forensic Mental Health Services Program in Palm Beach, Florida, is designed to be a fully comprehensive, county-based service system for all persons receiving mental health services while involved in the criminal justice system and for those on conditional release status after inpatient care is completed.
Abstract
Forensic services encompass jail services (screening, evaluation, crisis intervention and stabilization, inpatient services, and case management), court services (evaluation of competency to stand trial, sentencing alternatives, and community treatment as a condition of probation), and community services (residential alternatives and case management). Agencies participating in the Forensic Mental Health Services Program include the police, hospital emergency rooms, community mental health centers, and public defenders and State attorneys. The program is based on five principles: (1) the mentally disturbed jail inmate must be viewed as a community issue; (2) the jail is and should remain primarily a correctional facility; (3) serious mental health needs among inmates require limited but high-quality professional services; (4) correctional administrators must concentrate on developing mental health services in the areas of identification, crisis intervention, and case management; and (5) there is no one best way to organize a jail mental health program.