Mental Health and Criminal Justice: An Intersection of Practice and Policy.

Catalog description

Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online or face-to-face). 3 credits. Enrollment is restricted to students with junior status in the social work and mental health minor or by permission of the program director or course instructor. The course is designed to explore social work practice and policy at the interface of the public mental health and criminal justice systems and to provide instruction in the following topics: (1) evidence-based practices for justice-involved people with mental illnesses; (2) jails, prisons, and community supervision and people with mental illnesses; (3) criminal and specialty courts for people with severe mental illnesses; and (4) behavioral health and criminal justice policies and people with severe mental illnesses. The course is taught through an anti-racist, trauma-focused, healing-centered lens. Readings, podcasts, assignments and lectures will be taught/delivered through this lens.