Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2010, $496,022)
The National Initiatives: Justice System Response to Special Populations program, administered by the OJP's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), aims to improve the functioning of the criminal justice system, by assisting state, local, and tribal jurisdictions to develop appropriate responses to persons with mental illness who come into contact with the criminal justice system, including opportunities to divert persons with mental illness into a system of case management and treatment. The FY 2010 National Initiatives: Justice System Response to Special Populations program will provide funding to (category 1) link information systems to improve outcomes for offenders with mental illnesses, (category 2) develop a mental health court curriculum, (category 3) create a training and technical assistance program for the law enforcement response to individuals with mental illness, and (category 4) assess the pathways of women with mental illness to jails.
The Idaho State University will use the federal funds to address gaps in the understanding of women's pathways to jail (category 4). The goal is to conduct structured diagnostic interviews and qualitative life-history interviews with women offenders. The university will use descriptive, bivariate, and event-history analyses to examine risk for mental illness, adverse events, and treatment access, as well as structural equation modeling and grounded-theory analyses to elucidate pathways to jail for female offenders with and without serious mental illness.
CA/NCF