Panel: The Intersection of Mental Health and Criminal Justice

Policy Chats

In this episode, Judge Magdalena Cohen, Jennifer Bender, Eric Stopher, Deborah Johnson, and Dr. Stephanie Brooks Holliday talk with students from the UC Riverside School of Public Policy about the Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (or CARE) Act and the intersection of mental health and criminal justice in California.

Podcast Highlights:

“We do what we can to make sure that coming out of an inpatient setting, that person is prioritized, to receive the services that they need, including medication. We have a whole host of outpatient clinics from the city of Riverside all the way to Blythe, and so really we try to work with that individual to provide them with the best of their needs. And it's individualized, whatever it's going to take… to keep that person stable in the community.”

- Deborah Johnson on the topic of ensuring that care is provided to individuals beyond hospitalization, helping ease them with their transition.

“It's a policy thing that has to be looked at, is how are we going to plan for those housing issues [that are so prevalent in California], not only in Care Courts, but in any other program that the state wants to have the counties look at, and even with LPS. And I think that that's not a problem, but something that Riverside is not unique to, but it's certainly more unique than some of the other larger counties in California.”

- Eric Stopher on the topic of how Riverside County is preparing to provide housing amidst a state housing shortage.

“Even though there are a range of services available, some of the limiting factors are having enough providers to be able to offer services to everyone who might need [them]. There's a lot of variation from county to county with respect to the resources that are available, meaning that a lot of times it feels like access to mental health services can really be determined by the zip code that you live in.”

- Dr. Stephanie Brooks Holliday on the topic of geographic barriers to resources.

Guests:

Judge Magdalena Cohen (Judge, Riverside Superior Court)

Jennifer Bender (Deputy Public Defender, Riverside County Public Defender’s Office)

Eric Stopher (Deputy County Counsel, County of Riverside)

Deborah Johnson (Director of Innovation/Integration, Riverside University Health System - Behavioral Health)

Dr. Stephanie Brooks Holliday (Senior Behavioral Scientist; Professor of Policy Analysis, Pardee RAND Graduate School)

Interviewer:

Rachel Strausman (UCR Public Policy Major, Dean’s Vice Chief Ambassador)

Music by: C Codaine
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Xylo-Ziko/Minimal_1625

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Xylo-Ziko/Phase

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This is a production of the UCR School of Public Policy: https://spp.ucr.edu/ Subscribe to this podcast so you don’t miss an episode. Learn more about the series and other episodes via https://spp.ucr.edu/podcast.