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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

John F. Crilly, PhD, MPH, MSW¹, Virginia Aldige-Hiday, PhD², and Glenn Currier, MD, MPH¹. (1) Psychiatry, University of Rochester, 300 Crittenden Boulevard, Box PSYCH, Rochester, NY 14642, 585-275-0611, john_crilly@urmc.rochester.edu, (2) Sociology and Anthropology, North Carolina State University, Dept. of Sociology, Raleigh, NC 27695

The primary goal of jail diversion programs is to engage the arrested client with mental disorders in treatment to avoid incarceration. The objectives of these programs are to decrease the likelihood of symptom exacerbation in an environment with few treatment resources while increasing the likelihood of involvement with community-based treatment. To accomplish this task in a group which typically refuses treatment, the technique of focused use of “legal leverage” has been successful. However, the use of legal conditions to “leverage” an unwilling client into treatment can also be described as a coercive treatment. This session will discuss the jail diversion intervention, its success with legal leverage, and its juxtaposition as a potentially coercive strategy. The question to be addressed in this session is whether techniques used in the jail diversion process achieve the overall goals of treatment involvement and the avoidance of a detrimental jail sentence or simply the ideal end justified by a coercive means.

Learning Objectives:

• This session will provide the attendee with a discussion around different perspectives of coercion, specifically those involving the use of the criminal justice system to aid treatment compliance efforts.

Keywords: Mental Health Services, Criminal Justice

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation