The Council of State Governments has released a brief called, " Violence against Women with Mental Illness", a Consensus Project.  The brief outlines challenges to agencies based on these factors:

1. Mental health providers often do not get information from a client about potential recent crime victimization
2. Criminal Justice staff often do not determine the mental illness of an offender
3. Perceptions among people in criminal justice question the credibility of crime victims with mental illnesses
4. Lack of understanding laws related to confidentiality of mental illness
5. High rates of co-occurring substance abuse disorders among women with mental illness and crime are often not identified

The brief also provides information on effective programming. Policy recommendations from this project will be forthcoming in 2007, so stand by.

The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) website has numerous documents related to this topic. Click here.

To discuss these issues on NIC's online forum called Women Offenders, click here.