Dr. Ursula Castellano
Dr. Ursula Castellano, Associate Professor in the Sociology and Anthropology Department, presented “The Micro-Politics of Mental Health Court Referrals” at the 35th International Congress on Law and Mental Health in Prague, Czech Republic, in July 2017.
Castellano also co-organized (with Dr. Kathi Trawver of University Alaska-Anchorage) and presided over a panel session in which she presented “Release is Hazardous to Your Health: Violent Death Rates and Risks for Released Prisoners” which is authored by Dr. Anna Scheyett, Dean and Professor of Social Work at the University of Georgia.
The International Academy of Law and Mental Health (IALMH) is founded on the belief that issues arising from the interaction of law and mental health can best be addressed through multidisciplinary and cross-national approaches, drawing on law, the health professions, the social sciences, and the humanities.
Every two years, the IALMH holds an International Congress on Law and Mental Health, bringing together the international community of researchers, academics, practitioners and professionals in the field, whose wide-ranging perspectives provide for a comprehensive look at important law and mental health issues.
Abstracts:
The Micro-Politics of Mental Health Court Referrals
Mental health courts (MHCs) represent a fundamental departure from the traditional way of adjudicating criminal cases. Under the banner of therapeutic jurisprudence, MHC professionals bring together the practices and symbols of the criminal justice and mental health care systems to treat offenders with psychiatric disabilities in lieu of prosecution. Research on MHCs is dominated by evaluation studies but there are major gaps in our understanding of the everyday decision making practices that inform how and why MHC actors classify offenders as potential clients. This paper reports on findings from an ethnographic study of four MHCs and focuses on how actors evaluate new referrals. Drawing on institutional theory and the micro-politics of trouble (Emerson and Messinger 1977), I investigate MHC actors’ strategic use of treatment and legal logics to solve referral problems. The findings illuminate that MHC actors’ gatekeeping decisions are influenced by inter-professional dynamics of the new court organization as well as pressure to maintain external legitimacy. I conclude that MHC actors construct new categories of treatable troubles and untreatable troublemakers.
Release is Hazardous to Your Health: Violent Death Rates and Risks for Released Prisoners
Released prisoners face high risk of early mortality. Research on rates of violent deaths in prison releasees exists, however little work has gone into examining their associated contexts and circumstances. In this mixed-methods study, data on inmates released from the North Carolina Division of Adult Corrections (N=5476) matched to the Violent Death Reporting System were analyzed to estimate rates, demographic, and criminal justice–related predictors. Qualitative analyses of medical examiner report summaries and police reports summaries were completed to identify causes and context of violent death. Violent death rates for persons released from prison were more than 7 times higher than for the general adult population. Results from multinomial logistic regression indicated decreased homicide risk with age, whereas male gender and minority race increased risk. For suicide, minority races, release without supervision, and substance abuse treatment in prison decreased fatality risk. By contrast, a history of mental illness increased suicide risk. Findings revealed that homicides (64% of deaths) were associated with violence as a result of argument and with criminal activity. Suicides (30%) were in response to threat of re-incarceration, relationship problems, depression, and situational difficulties. Legal intervention caused 6% of deaths. Implications for practice and research are discussed.
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