Ashe's keynote address...

The "Achieving Policy Reform" discussion was moderated by Dorothy Weitzman of the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work. Her panelists were Michael Cutler, a criminal defense attorney; Sidney Gelb, Public Policy Chair for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill; Kevin Norton of CAB Health and Recovery Systems; and Harold Naughton, a Massachusetts legislator (D., Twelfth Worcester).

The Juvenile Justice Concerns panel was moderated by Richard Barnum, MD, of the Citizens for Juvenile Justice Board. The panel included Michael Donnelly, Assistant District of Worcester County; Bradford Feltus, a private mental health /addiction counselor; David Wilcox, a Middlesex County Juvenile Court Clinic psychologist; and Howard Wolfe, Director of the New England Inhalant Abuse Prevention Coalition.

Whitney Taylor of the Drug Policy Forum moderated a panel on Mental Health and Drug Courts. Judge Robert Ziemian of the Boston Municipal Court Department, who has created eight drug courts in Massachusetts, began with a brief history of the development of drug courts. Initiated in Florida in 1989 under then Attorney General Janet Reno, there are now 1600 drug courts throughout the country. In Massachusetts, there are some 20 in existence with another four in development. In both New York and New Jersey, the legislature and/or the court systems have mandated such courts in every jurisdiction.

In Arrest Diversion Models, James Hannon, moderator and professor of sociology and criminal justice at Bridgewater State College, made clear that the use of diversion at the first point of intersection of citizen with the law enforcement community, contact with police, would be the focus of this panel. Panelist Albert Grudzinkas, J.D., coordinator for the Legal Studies Center for Mental Health Services at the University of Massachusetts Medical School began by providing some history of the development of mental health analysis as a tool for Massachusetts police and courts.  

After the keynote address, the first panel addressed "Current Realities and Costs: Setting the Stage for Discussion". Moderated by Whitney Taylor, the panel began with a presentation by Paul Benedict of the Department of Mental Health (DMH).

Mr. Benedict noted that in MA - for the past 50 years - courts have had access to mental health clinicians. However, in the late 1980s, the legislature gave a substantive infusion of funding to the courts to make mental health clinicians available on demand in every district and municipal court, and in the 1990s extended this to juvenile courts.

These clinicians do evaluations in both civil and criminal cases to determine competency to stand trial and/or levels of criminal responsibility. In addition, they help courts make determinations of whether civil commitment under chapter 123, section 12 is appropriate.

Whitney Taylor of the Drug Policy Forum of MA moderated the session on Dual Diagnosis and Diversion. The panelists were Judge Kathleen Coffey of the Boston Municipal Court, Probation Officer Maureen Chamberlain of the Worcester Dist. Court, Sandra Fallon, LICSW, of the Worcester County and North Middlesex Court Clinic, and David Monroe, a consumer of Dual Diagnosis services within Massachusetts.

Post-Release Challenges, moderated by Dana Moulton of the Massachusetts Organization of Addiction Recovery, included panelists Francisca Fajana, an attorney with the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute; Rebecca Lott of the Boston Police Department's Re-entry Initiative of the Boston Police Department; Robert Pilsbury, a psychologist in private practice; and Ronald Owens, formerly incarcerated, of the Prisoners Re-entry Working Group.

Thank you to this edition's author's:

Lloyd Fillion and Patrice Brymner with assistance from Peg Erlanger, Stephen Apthorp, Michael Cutler, and Carolyn Cuneo. Thank you for all of your time, energy, and efforts!