The United States keeps almost 2 million people behind bars on any given day, a potentially traumatic experience that disproportionately affects those who already face poverty, racism, violence, addiction, and mental illness. Many of those people leave incarceration and join millions of others under the supervision of the criminal justice system in the form of probation and parole. Despite the well-established, and often harmful, impact of incarceration on the mental health of those imprisoned, and the staff who work within or alongside the criminal or juvenile justice systems, mental health training programs barely discuss the treatment of justice-involved patients. With one-third of community mental health patients estimated to have current or past justice involvement, the U.S. behavioral health workforce is ill-prepared for caring for this vulnerable and underserved population. There are not enough psychiatric voices joining system-impacted people in advocating for transformative criminal justice policy change, and not enough system-impacted people invited to participate in the work of psychiatry.

In early 2022, a small group of mission-driven mental health clinicians, educators and researchers affiliated with the Columbia Department of Psychiatry and the New York State Psychiatric Institute introduced an early concept of the Justice-Involved Behavioral Health Workgroup, designed to address the substantial gaps in knowledge, evidence-based clinical practice, and training needs related to the care of justice-involved people. The group has grown from four to several hundred, representing a range of expertise across multiple agencies and organizations, including system-impacted professionals, clinicians, researchers, law enforcement and criminal justice personnel, advocates, family members, and students.  

While the complexity of issues facing incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals with mental health needs (e.g., systemic racism, poorly coordinated, multi-agency involvement, lack of standards, professional bias, significant social challenges) have made lasting and wide-spread person-centered care difficult, we believe that such change is possible by combining the power of academic psychiatry with the voices and experience of individuals most directly impacted by the behavioral health and justice systems.

The Workgroup has developed its structure and projects almost entirely from the donated time of its passionate membership and has strived to include and platform system-impacted people at every step of the way. We are now entering a new phase of development that we hope will bring our collective experience, expertise, and support to the research community and advocacy spaces that need it the most. 

• Collaborate with affected communities to generate awareness while maintaining cultural humility.
• Develop and evaluate collaborative data-driven projects to improve clinical services, education, training, and policy related to behavioral health treatment in juvenile and/or criminal legal  settings.
• Tailor initiatives to the needs of impacted individuals, incorporating their skills and perspectives at every stage.
• Use findings from these projects to advocate for system reforms that reduce initial or recurring legal involvement through person-centered care.