RT Book
T1 Trial by treatment: punishing illness in an age of criminal legal reform
A1 Stitt, Mary Ellen
LA English
PP Chicago
PB The University of Chicago Press
YR 2025
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1907652337
AB A troubling account of the unexpected impacts of treatment-based alternatives to criminal punishment. Every year, courts send hundreds of thousands of people to treatment-based programs as alternatives to traditional punishment. These alternatives-known as 'diversion programs'-are widely celebrated as reforms that reduce the punishment of the mentally ill. But in Trial by Treatment, Mary Ellen Stitt shows that they have, in fact, expanded the reach of the criminal legal system and its power over the lives of the most vulnerable. The inner workings of diversion programs are obscure, partially by design, and data on outcomes is hard to come by. Stitt draws on two years of fieldwork in criminal courtrooms and court-mandated treatment sessions, as well as an original national dataset, in-depth interviews, and experimental survey data, to document the hidden impacts of diversion. She shows that placing mental healthcare under the control of the courts has helped to legitimize the criminalization of illness, warped treatment environments, and amplified inequalities in punishment. In vivid and humanizing detail, Trial by Treatment shows how reforms that keep power and discretion in the same hands can entrench the very problems they promised to solve"- Provided by publisher
NO Includes bibliographical references and index
CN HV9276.5
SN 978-0-226-84042-0
SN 978-0-226-84040-6
K1 Alternatives to imprisonment : United States
K1 Alternatives to imprisonment : United States : Public opinion
K1 Criminal justice, Administration of : United States
K1 Offenders with mental disabilities : Rehabilitation : United States
K1 Pre-trial intervention : United States