Vera’s Substance Use and Mental Health Program (SUMH) conducts applied research to help public officials and community organizations develop empirically driven responses to the substance use and mental health needs of people involved in justice systems. SUMH staff collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data to examine the interaction between public health and justice systems and evaluate existing programs to understand the experiences of those affected by psychiatric disorders or substance use and policies that prolong their involvement in the justice system.
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Responding to Behavioral Health Crises
Alternatives to Police-Based Approaches
Police are ill-equipped to safely and effectively serve people in behavioral health crisis. Even when officers receive training in crisis intervention and de-escalation, the mere presence of armed, uniformed police whose core function is criminal enforcement can exacerbate distress and escalate mental health-related situations. This threat is compo ...
Changing Directions
The Intersection of Public Health and Criminal Justice
Creating a Culture of Safety
Sentinel Event Reviews for Suicide and Self-Harm in Correctional Facilities
Since 2011, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), through its Sentinel Events Initiative, has been investigating the feasibility of using a sentinel events approach to review and learn from errors in the criminal justice system such as wrongful convictions, eyewitness misidentifications, or incidents of suicide and self-harm in custody. Recogniz ...
Related Work
Photo by Jovelle Tamayo
Behavioral Health Crisis Alternatives
Shifting from Police to Community Responses
No Access to Justice
Breaking the Cycle of Homelessness and Jail
On any given night in the United States, more than 550,000 people experience homelessness. The U.S. legal system criminalizes survival behaviors associated with homelessness and fails to acknowledge that people who are homeless face impossible odds within the legal process. Black people, who already face a disproportionate risk of homelessness, are ...
COVID-19
Criminal Justice Responses to the Coronavirus Pandemic
America has become a global epicenter in the COVID-19 pandemic, and some of the country’s most vulnerable people are in jails, prisons, and detention centers—places where they are at extreme risk of infection and have no ability to protect themselves. This moment highlights the vital need to shift away from punitive practices that funnel people int ...
Vera President and Director, Nicholas Turner, Covid-19 Statement
The COVID-19 crisis is bringing our world to a standstill. However, our nation's jails, prisons, and detention centers are continuing to operate without proper health precautions, leaving incarcerated people and corrections staff extremely vulnerable to the virus. Vera President and Director, Nicholas Turner, responds to the lack of immediate actio ...
Coronavirus Guidance for the Criminal and Immigration Legal Systems
The coronavirus, or COVID-19, has been declared by the World Health Organization to be a global pandemic. As the number of people infected in the United States grows exponentially, we must focus on prevention and containment in the criminal and immigration legal systems. Vera and Community Oriented Correctional Health Services have created a series ...
Changing Course in the Overdose Crisis
Moving from Punishment to Harm Reduction and Health
Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, and communities across the country are struggling to respond. But the punitive approach exemplified by the “war on drugs” has driven mass incarceration, exacerbated racial disparities within the criminal justice system, and devastated communities of color. The United State ...
A Sentinel Review Process Could Help Washington D.C.
Blog Post
Akhi Johnson
Study Links Solitary Confinement to Increased Risk of Death After Release
The report found that the more time people spent in restrictive housing as a percentage of their total incarceration, the greater their risk of death in the first year after their release. Those who had been in solitary confinement two or more times during their incarceration were 41 percent and 74 percent more likely to die of homicide and suicide ...
Blog Post
Aaron Stagoff-Belfort
Preventing Suicide and Self-Harm in Jail
A Sentinel Events Approach
Suicide is the leading cause of death in jails across the country. At a time when the public is paying closer attention to local jails and their primary role in mass incarceration, it is critical to shine light on the problem of jail suicide and the steps jails can take to prevent future deaths. This report is the second from Vera that frames suici ...
Up Close with the Opioid Crisis
Officer Nicole Moyer of the Burlington Police Department opens up about working on the front lines of the opioid crisis.
For Mental Health Month, a New Initiative Focused on Serving Safely
As organizations across the country draw attention to Mental Health Awareness Month this May and to the various ways that mental illness impacts people’s lives, the launch of Serving Safely offers a chance to reflect on the myriad opportunities for improving the way criminal justice stakeholders interact with vulnerable community members at all sta ...
Blog Post
Leah Pope
Rebecca Neusteter
Addressing Opioids
A crisis