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Helping the Mentally Ill in Jails Adjust to Community Life: A Description of a Postrelease ACT Program and Its Clients

Department of Criminal Justice, Loyola University Chicago, 820 N. Michigan Avenue, Room 923 Lewis Towers, Chicago, IL 60611alurigi{at}luc.edu

John R. Fallon

Jerry Dincin

Thresholds Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center, 4101 N. Ravenswood, Chicago, Illinois, 60613, USA

More than 25 years ago, researchers noted that persons with serious mental illness (PSMIs) were being processed increasingly through the criminal justice system instead of through the mental health system. Nearly 1 of every 15 admissions, or approximately6% of jail detainees, suffers fromsevere mental disorders at the time of arrest. Many PSMIs in jail receive psychiatric services during their incarceration but are usually discharged with no referrals to community treatment and no income or housing. Such persons can be managed effectively with Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) models. Thresholds, a psychiatric rehabilitation center, has funded a 2-year ACT Demonstration Project for PSMIs involved in Cook County’s (Chicago) criminal justice system. The project’s basic goals are to reduce the numbers of rearrests, reincarcerations, and rehospitalizations among project participants. To achieve these goals, project staff assists PSMIs to obtain psychiatric treatment, health care, housing, benefits, and other social services.

International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Vol. 44, No. 5, 532-548 (2000)
DOI: 10.1177/0306624X00445002


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