Mental health administrators face many challenges in meeting the needs of people with mental illness who have been involved with, or who are at risk of becoming involved with, the criminal justice system.  They must attempt to prioritize services to this population without supplanting individuals with no involvement in the criminal justice system, ensure that providers are appropriately trained, and find ways to collaborate with criminal justice professionals, substance abuse agencies, and other service providers to meet the multiple service needs of these individuals, who typically have co-occurring disorders and lack adequate housing, employment, and financial supports.

The Consensus Project suggests strategies for building and sustaining effective collaborations that help people with mental illness to avoid criminal justice involvement in the first place, and that enable the deployment of scarce resources to best serve those who have had such involvement.

Though the Consensus Project encourages a systemic approach to improving the criminal justice system response to people with mental illness, we recognize the need for mental health administrators to focus on the issues that most directly pertain to their roles. To that end, we recommend that mental health administrators focus on the following sections: