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Florida’s Youth Incarceration Problem Has a Proven Fix
Florida incarcerates more children than any other state in the country. Even while research shows harsh punishments and long sentences don't rehabilitate kids — they keep them coming back. There needs to be another way to hold kids accountable because, right now, we are manufacturing the outcomes...
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The Justice System’s New Role in Behavioral Health Compliance
The relationship between behavioral health and the justice system has traditionally been characterized by courtroom interaction, diversion programs, and people moving through a system built to process them. Today, that relationship is changing rapidly as the justice system ramps up oversight of...
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Westchester’s Behavioral Health Diversion Continuum: A Roadmap Through the Justice System
The intersection of the criminal justice and behavioral health systems is neither a point nor a straight line. Rather, the overlap of these systems is a continuum; one in which the inflection points of systemic cross-contact can be identified and potentially addressed. The clearest tool for...
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It’s 2026. Why Are Peers Not Front and Center in Our Mental Health Crisis Response System in NYC?
The movement toward non-police-based responses to mental health crises in our city has taken on many shapes and sizes. For years, efforts were made to train NYPD rookies, sergeants, and captains on appropriate crisis intervention techniques. Over three days of intensive training at the police...
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Nobody Listened Until She Was in a Courtroom: Postpartum Illness and a Diagnosis That Runs Out
Dana came onto our unit nineteen weeks after she delivered her son. Her husband got up at two that morning and found her side of the bed empty. She was in the baby's room, sitting straight up in the rocking chair, not rocking, looking at the wall. She did not lift her head when he came in, or when...
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The NYSPA Report – Treatment Before Arrest: Why Diversion Begins With Engagement
When psychiatrists discuss behavioral health diversion, we usually mean redirecting a person away from arrest, jail, or prosecution and toward treatment. Mental health courts, crisis-response programs, and alternatives to incarceration are essential; yet if diversion begins only after...
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Decriminalization Alone Won’t Fix Addiction – Infrastructure Will: A Comparative Look at Portugal, the Netherlands, and the U.S.
In Chasing the Scream: The Search for the Truth About Addiction, Johan Hari asks, "What if everything you think you know about addiction is wrong?" (Hari, 2015). Hari posits that addiction is driven by isolation more than chemicals. In a widely viewed TED Talk he states, "The opposite of addiction...
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Beyond Deinstitutionalization: Unraveling the Complex Criminalization of Serious Mental Illness in America
Individuals with Serious Mental Illness (SMI) are disproportionately represented among the populations of the nation's correctional facilities. Some have dubbed jails and prisons the "New Asylums" as the criminal justice system has become the de facto service provider for individuals with severe...
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Diversion Is Prevention: How New York Is Supporting Mental Health Around the Legal System
We all deal with mental health challenges in our lives. In New York State, we are doing everything in our power to guarantee that nobody has to face these challenges alone by expanding community-based services, supporting individuals during all stages of life, and promoting sustained recovery. For...
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Community Integration, Economic Security, and the Promise of Olmstead
True economic security for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities is shaped by whether individuals have meaningful opportunities to work, earn income, build relationships, make choices, and participate fully in their communities. Financial planning and economic security for...
