This article describes one of the newest, most specialised law enforcement programmes in the United States: Crisis Intervention Teams (CITs) for youth with mental illness. In response to the fragmentation of behavioural healthcare services in the educational, juvenile justice and mental health systems, Juvenile-CITs (J-CITs) have been implemented in a handful of jurisdictions to serve as an intervention for troubled and troublesome adolescents in need of mental health care. Information about J-CITs is limited; little has been written about such programmes, and no published studies have examined their effectiveness. Hence the present study was undertaken to identify all of the currently operational J-CITs in the United States. We conducted structured telephone interviews in order to gather qualitative data regarding the philosophy, origins, operations and components of each J-CIT. We afford an early look at several J-CIT programmes in diverse geographic areas. We conclude with observations concerning the role of such programmes in a law enforcement as well as the challenges that police departments are likely to face in the implementation and maintenance of such initiatives.
BoeskyL.M. (2002) Juvenile Offenders with Mental Health Disorders: Who are They and What do We do with Them?Alexandria, VA: American Correctional Association.
2.
BorumR. (2000) ‘Improving High-risk Encounters between People with Mental Illness and the Police’Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law28: 332.
3.
BorumR.DeaneM.SteadmanH.MorrisseyJ. (1998) ‘Police Perspectives on Responding to Mentally Ill People in Crisis: Perceptions of program effectiveness’Behavioral Science and Law16: 393.
4.
BostwickL. (2010) Mental Health Screening and Assessment in the Illinois Juvenile Justice System. Springfield, IL: Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority.
5.
CocozzaJ.SkowyraK. (2000) ‘Youth with Mental Health Disorders: Issues and Emerging Responses’Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Journal7: 3.
6.
ComptonM.T.BahoraM.WatsonA.C.OlivaJ.R. (2008) ‘A Comprehensive Review of Extant Research on Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Programs’Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law36: 47.
7.
ConradP. (2007) The Medicalization of Society: On the Transformation of Human Conditions into Treatable Disorders. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
8.
Council of State Governments (2002) Criminal Justice/Mental Health Consensus Project. New York, NY: Council of State Governments.
9.
DoulasA.V.LurigioA.J. (2010) ‘Juvenile Crisis Intervention Teams (CITs): A Response to the Fragmentation of the Educational, Mental Health, and Juvenile Justice Systems’Journal of Police Crisis Negotiations10: 241.
10.
FriedmanW.LurigioA.J.GreenleafR.AlbertsonS. (2004) ‘Encounters Between Officers and Youths: The Social Costs of Disrespect’Journal of Crime and Justice27: 1.
11.
GruttadaroD.E.MillerJ.E. (2004) Children and Psychotropic Medications. Arlington, VA: National Alliance on Mental Illness, Policy Research Institute Task Force Report.
12.
KramerP. (2005) Against Depression. New York, NY: Viking.
13.
LambH.R.WeinbergerL.E. (1998) ‘Persons with Severe Mental Illness in Jails and Prisons: A Review’Psychiatric Services49: 483.
14.
LambH.R.WeinbergerL.E.DeCuirW.J.Jr. (2002) ‘The Police and Mental Health’Psychiatric Services53: 1266.
15.
LurigioA.J.SwartzJ.A. (2000) ‘Changing the Contours of the Criminal Justice System to Meet the Needs of Persons with Serious Mental Illness’ in HorneyJ. (ed.), Policies, Processes, and Decisions of the Criminal Justice System. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 45.
16.
Memphis Crisis Intervention Team. n.d. Crisis Intervention Team. [Online] http://cit.memphis.edu (18 January 2011).
17.
National Alliance on Mental Illness [NAMI] (2009) Supporting Schools and Communities in Breaking the Prison Pipeline: A Guide to Emerging and Promising Crisis Intervention Programs for Youth. Arlington, VA: NAMI.
18.
RiceH. (2003) ‘Schools Accused of Criminalizing Disability: Discipline Leading to Lawsuits’Houston Chronicle 29 December: 13.
19.
RichW.J. (2009) ‘The Path of Mentally Ill Offenders’Fordham Urban Law Journal36: 89.
20.
RogersA. (1990) ‘Policing Mental Disorders: Controversies, Myths, and Realities’Social Policy and Administration24: 2226.
21.
StallerJ.A. (2008) ‘Service Delivery in Child Psychiatry: Provider Shortage isn't the only Problem’Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry13: 171.
22.
SteadmanH.DeaneM.BorumR.MorrisseyJ. (2000) ‘Comparing Outcomes of Major Models of Police Responses to Mental Health Emergencies’Psychiatric Services51: 645–9.
23.
SteadmanH.J.DeaneM.MorrisseyJ.WestcottM.L.SalsinS.ShapiroS. (1999) ‘A SAMHSA Research Initiative Assessing the Effectiveness of Jail Diversion Programs for Mentally Ill Persons’Psychiatric Services50: 1620.
24.
SteadmanH.J.StainbrookK.A.GriffinP.JeffreyD.DupontR.HoreyC. (2001) ‘A Specialized Crisis Response Site as a Core Element of Police-Based Diversion Programs’Psychiatric Services52: 219.
25.
StraussG.GlennM.ReddiP.AfaqI.PodolskayaA.RybakovaT.El-MallakhR.S. (2005) ‘Psychiatric Dispositions of Patients Brought by Crisis Intervention Team Police Officers’Community Mental Health Journal41: 223.
26.
TeplinL.A. (2000) ‘Keeping the Peace: Police Discretion and Mentally Ill Persons’National Institute of Justice Journal: 8.
27.
U.S. Surgeon General (1999) Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services.
28.
WaldJ.LosenD.J. (2003) ‘Deconstructing and Redirecting a School-To-Prison Pipeline’New Directions for Youth Development. 99: 9.
29.
WeithornL.A. (2005) ‘Envisioning Second-Order Change in America's Responses to Troubled and Troublesome Youth’Hostra Law Review33: 1305.
30.
WellsW.SchaferJ.A. (2006) ‘Officer Perceptions of Police Responses to Persons with a Mental Illness’Policing: International Journal of Police Strategies and Management29: 578.
