Unemployment rates remain high among individuals with psychiatric disabilities despite growing evidence that supported employment programs (SEPs) can help such individuals to obtain and retain competitive employment. A complete understanding of factors that may facilitate or hinder the success of such supported employment efforts is urgently needed to increase the efficacy of SEPs and move more individuals with psychiatric disabilities from welfare to work. This exploratory study provides insight into provides insight into potential facilitators and barriers to employment among individuals with psychiatric disabilities from the perspective of job coaches. Twenty-eight job coaches from 14 SEPs in a Northeastern state reported on their experience with four recent client, two who were successful in obtaining employment and two who failed, through a semi-structured mail survey. Findings suggest that job coaches use similar strategies to assist clients, but in each case try to tailor specific strategies to client's needs and characteristics. Factors that influence successful job placement and research and policy implications are discussed.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined whether women with behavioral health needs are more likely to receive treatment for these problems in prison or in the community and to what extent prison disrupts or establishes involvement in treatment for these women. METHODS: Data were collected in August 2004 as part of a population survey of female inmates in the only state correctional facility for women in New Jersey. RESULTS: A total of 908 women were surveyed. Fifty-six percent of the women surveyed reported needing behavioral health treatment before incarceration, but only 62 percent of this group reported receiving such treatment in the community. The rate at which treatment matched need within this population before incarceration varied by type of treatment needed: it was the highest (58 percent) for women who needed treatment for mental health problems, lower (52 percent) for those who needed substance abuse treatment, and lowest (44 percent) for those who needed treatment for comorbid mental health and substance abuse problems. In comparison, the rate of match between need for and receipt of treatment in prison was higher for all three types of behavioral health treatment (78 percent, 57 percent, and 65 percent, respectively). Additionally, the findings suggest that prison did not disrupt the type of behavioral health treatment that inmates had previously received in the community. CONCLUSIONS: At least in New Jersey, prison appears to improve access to behavioral health treatment among female inmates. Although this conclusion is consistent with the rehabilitation goals of incarceration, it also suggests that some women may have been able to avoid prison if treatment had been provided in the community, especially for substance-related problems.

Following changes in law enforcement policies that encourage or mandate arrest of domestic violence offenders, a concomitant increase in women arrested and mandated to batterer treatment programs has resulted. Most research findings, however, suggest that heterosexual intimate violence is gendered, with abuse, power, and control wielded by men over their female partners, and that when women use violence, it is typically in self defense or for nonaggressive reasons. However, few studies have investigated the female batterer treatment programs and the context of the women's use of violence. Using qualitative data collected from observations of three female domestic violence offender programs, this article examines women's interpretations of their violent experiences. In addition, the findings raise policy-level questions about the appropriateness of such programs, weighing the costs and benefits of a criminal justice approach to women's use of force in intimate relationships.

PURPOSE: Prisoner re-entry is an evolving area of mental health services development. We conducted a national assessment of the structure and practice of reentry programs for people with mental illness. The goal was to inductively develop a classification of service strategies derived from current and evolving practices. METHODS: A national survey was conducted to identify service strategies being used by programs to bridge the transition from incarceration to the community for prisoners with mental illness. Fifty-eight reentry programs were identified. Program descriptions were developed for fifty. Data were used to develop a typology of reentry programs or mentally ill offenders. RESULTS: Reentry programs vary based on their location relative to criminal just and mental health systems, types of professionals staffing the treatment programs, and degree of collaboration between the two service systems. The findings of this survey supported the use of a 2X2 typology of initiatives, with one factor being which system initiated the program (criminal justice or mental health) and the other factor being whether or not there is significant collaboration between the mental health an criminal justice systems. IMPLICATIONS: If the funding trend indicated by this survey continues, the criminal justice system will become a primary funder of treatment services for mentally ill offenders returning to the community. No one knows how this shift in funding and program locations will affect the provision of mental health services.