A New Guide to Help Families of People with Mental Health Needs Navigate the Criminal Justice System

The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center, the American Psychiatric Association Foundation, and the National Center for State Courts partner through the Judges and Psychiatrists Leadership Initiative (JPLI) to highlight leaders working to address mental health needs among people in the criminal justice system through innovative practices and programs. This feature is the sixth in a series.     

Despite some progress, people with mental illness are still overrepresented in the criminal justice system, often due to low-level, nonviolent offenses connected to unmet behavioral health needs. And unfortunately, many of these people find themselves trying to understand a justice system, in real time, that is complex and operates differently from state to state. 

Shannon Scully

This March, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) released a new guide, Navigating the Criminal Justice System: A NAMI Resource for People with Mental Illness and Their Families, to help individuals and families better understand what to expect and how to respond at each stage—arrest, court, diversion options, and care while in custody. While involvement with the justice system is never the goal, NAMI’s new guide offers clear, accessible information to help people navigate challenges and advocate for themselves more effectively. 

Following its release, the CSG Justice Center spoke with Shannon Scully, one of the guide’s co-authors, about the gaps that this guide fills, what NAMI hears from families, and how judges and psychiatrists can help families advocate for their loved ones. 

Editor’s note: Answers have been edited for length and clarity. 

There are many resources that focus on the intersection of mental health and the criminal justice system. So, why was it important for NAMI to develop this guide?

Families are often left in the shadows of the criminal justice system. Through NAMI Helpline calls and our support groups, we consistently hear from family members whose loved ones have become involved in the criminal justice system. And what they tell us is that they feel unheard and lost in the process, uncertain how to advocate for their loved one. The criminal justice system is its own world, with its own set of rules, and those of us who work in and around this system have a hard time remembering what it can feel like when you have never experienced it before.  

Our intent is to fill the gap in resources that can help people with mental illness and their families begin to understand the criminal justice system, so that they are better positioned for success coming out of it. 

We also learned from NAMI partners and champions who are prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and court advocates. They shared with us what they would tell families if they had the time and resources. Then we had to do the difficult work of narrowing down the information and writing it in a way that made it easy for people who are unfamiliar with the system to understand.

What do you want family members and loved ones to understand the most about navigating the criminal justice system after reading this guide?

Interestingly, there was a lot of uncertainty around the development of this guide. We had many internal conversations about what exactly we could say that would be accurate about the criminal justice system and what someone might experience regardless of where you lived in the country. That process reminded us just how local the criminal justice system is, and that what someone might expect will depend entirely on state and local laws, community initiatives, and court leadership.  

Even still, we felt that wasn’t reason enough for us not  to try and give families a baseline of what to expect, and how they could structure their advocacy. Families of people with serious mental illness are often some of the best champions for their loved ones and frequently have a wealth of information that can be leveraged by court professionals. Yet, too often, they don’t have the resources or the knowledge to support their efforts and limit burnout. Our hope is by providing them with information around what they might expect, they can position themselves to be a partner to the court and help achieve better outcomes for their loved one.  

How can judges and psychiatrists use this guide to better understand the challenges that families face when advocating for their loved ones?

The best thing judges and psychiatrists can do is to remember that the people who appear in your court come from a family. Those families can be a powerful resource to understand that person, their treatment history, and what kind of resources might exist to help them in recovery. We have to do a better job of providing resources for families and incorporating them into the court process when appropriate.  

A good first step is making this guide available in your community. Judges have the authority to make it available in their courthouses today, sharing it with lawyers, social workers, clerks, and other court professionals. And psychiatrists can begin to incorporate many of the tips and strategies into their work with families of clients so that they are best positioning them for success. 

Additional Resources

Full NAMI Guide: Navigating the Criminal Justice System: A NAMI Resource for People with Mental Illness and Their Families  

JPLI Guide for Judges: Practical Considerations Related to Release and Sentencing for Defendants Who Have Behavioral Health Needs  

CSG Justice Center Guide for Families: Understanding Overdose Risk for People Reentering the Community