Effectivenessof Community Treatment Centers and Jail Diversion Programs
Based on the exploration of a randomized study, which was carried out centered on the effectiveness of community treatment centers and jail diversion programs in place of serving time in jail, it can be held that the programs turned out to be quite effective. Within the last decade, these non-imprisonment programs have flourished as they save taxpayers money in two different ways. To start with, they are able to save on jails and prisons maintain costs (Teplin, 2000).In addition, they help in addressingprimaryoutlying causes of crime, for instanceanger management problems, mental health matters, or alcohol anddrug problems. When compared to the traditional methods of imprisonment and serving jail time, these programs turned effective since it was seen that up to 15 percent of male detainees,as well as 31 percent of females suffer from some kind of mental illnesses (Morrissey, Meyer, & Cuddeback, 2007). The aim of the program is to prevent people from going to jail by helping them manage the cause of their actions.
The randomized study was carried out in an agricultural county in California, which had a central city populace of 189, 000, from 2000 to 2003. The selected participants were already in detention in jail and were diagnosedwith having a major mental disorder by clinicians.However, those arrested for violent crimes were excluded (Cusack, Morrissey, Cuddeback, Prins, & Williams, 2010).After 12 to 24 months the jail diversion treatment programs were measured, and it turned out to be that no person, or just a few of those who were in the programwent to jail as compared to those who did not participate in the program and went without treatment(Cuddleback, Morrissey, & Cusack, 2007). By means of a table of random records, 134 individuals were allocated in blocks of two, those who went through the treatment and the ones who did not (Cusack et al., 2010, p. 358). After the outcome data was statistically assessed it wasthus determined that the jail diverting programs saved noteworthy amount of money andloweredrecidivism.
References
Cuddleback, G., Morrissey, J., & Cusack, K. (2007). How many forensic assertive community treatment teams do we need? Psychiatric Services, 59, 205-208.
Cusack, K., Morrissey, J., Cuddeback, G., Prins, A., & Williams, D. (2010, March). Criminal justice involvement, behavioral health service use, and costs of forensic assertive community treatment: A randomized trial. Community Mental Health Journal, 46, 356- 363.
Morrissey, J., Meyer, P., & Cuddeback, P. (2007). Extending assertive community treatment to criminal justice settings: Origins, current evidence, and future directions. Community Mental Health Journal, 43, 527-544.
Teplin, L. (2000). Keeping the peace: Police discretion and mentally ill persons. National Institute of Justice Journal.
