SJC Exchange Library

PRA/PRI is happy to announce the public release of a long-anticipated report prepared for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Foundation Work for Exploring Incompetence to Stand Trial Evaluations and Competence Restoration for People with Serious Mental Illness/Serious Emotional Disturbance!

The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the status of the fields of competence to stand trial (CST), incompetence to stand trial (IST), and competence restoration (CR) for adults in the criminal justice system and youth in the juvenile justice system.

This report consists of four major sections:

• The Introduction includes the foundation for why CST is a key issue in the legal and clinical systems and key definitions.
• The Environmental Scan provides an overview of the legal foundation for CST, including case law and state statutes; definition of the key terminology; and an explanation of waitlists that are integral to the competence process. 
• The Literature Review includes a comprehensive review of research on the competence system and national efforts to address the major issues in both the adult and juvenile competence systems. This section also includes a description of key studies on the competence population; examples of inpatient, jail-based, and outpatient restoration programs; and "emerging issues" in the CST/IST/CR area, such as restorability, whether to pursue CST for misdemeanor charges, expedited diversion proposals, and risk assessment.
• The report concludes with a Summary of the national scope of 10 major issues in the CST system.

In addition to these major sections to the report, the Appendices include references, a state-by-state analysis of laws pertaining to CST for adults and youths, and a list of evidence-based measures utilized in competence evaluations.

Feel free to reach out with any questions and we hope this report will be useful in your work!

Best,

Ashley

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Ashley Krider
Assistant Director, SJC IMPACT Network
Policy Research, Inc.
akrider@prainc.com
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