Preparing Communities for Re-Entry of Offenders with Mental Illness

摘要

Approximately 900,000 people with active symptoms of serious mental illness are booked annually into U.S. jails. Of these, about three quarters have a co-occurring substance use disorder. When these people return to the community they have multiple, complex and interrelated treatment needs, which are often exacerbated by release into the community. This article presents an approach to cross-systems collaboration among the criminal justice, mental health and substance abuse systems to promote recovery of incarcerated people with co-occurring disorders re-entering into the community through education, facilitated strategic planningand follow-up technical assistance. The ACTION Approach is described, and results from process and outcome evaluations are presented and discussed.