May, 2006The National GAINS Center for Systemic Change for Justice-Involved People with Mental Illness Integrating Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services for Justice-Involved Persons with Co-Occurring Disorders

ven the highest estimates of co-occurring disorders (COD) in the general population are small compared to COD prevalence in jails and prisons. The factors that contribute to overrepresentation of COD in justice-involved persons include: high rates of substance use, abuse, and dependence among persons with mental illnesses (Grant et al., 2004) coupled with increased enforcement of illegal drug use, possession, and/or sales statutes leading to arrest; increased application of mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines for drug-related offenses resulting in longer jail and prison periods of incarceration; association of COD and homelessness (Drake et al., 1991) and homelessness and incarceration (Michaels et al., 1992) that brings a subset of impoverished persons with COD in contact with the justice system who often becom