USING INCARCERATION RATES TO MEASURE MENTAL-HEALTH PROGRAM PERFORMANCE

This article introduces a more refined conceptualization of the crimin al justice involvement of clients of mental health programs than is ev ident in the existing literature, and demonstrates a research methodol ogy that provides program administrators with standardized measures of program performance in this area. The conceptualization of the crimin al justice involvement of people served by community mental health pro grams distinguishes between three distinct areas of concern: (1) progr am accessibility to people with a history of criminal justice involvem ent, (2) criminal justice outcomes, and (3) quality of program perform ance. The methodology makes use of existing data resources to provide a valid and reliable measure of program performance in these three are as.