| The State of California Board of Corrections has undertaken a program research initiative to reduce the number of seriously and persistently mental ill persons in California jails. Under this program, the County of Santa Cruz Mentally Ill Offender Strategy Committee, the County of Santa Cruz Sheriff's Department, and the Santa Cruz Department of Mental Health are engaged in a four year randomized trial of the application of an Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) Program to an offender population. It is hypothesized that the experimental program will stabilize seriously and persistently ill offenders, who otherwise are at serious risk of re-offending. The treatment group will receive ACT program services while the control group will receive the services that are currently supplied to mentally ill offenders. BOTEC Analysis Corporation designed the experiment, is carrying out the research component, and will develop an implementation study, a process evaluation, and an outcome analysis. |
Updated 05/20/2006