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Criminalization of the Mentally Ill:
A Way Out

October 25, 2014 | Irvine, California

Presented by Orange County Chapter
Registration Form and Program

Early Registration Requested | 5 CEUs
Time: 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. (lunch provided)
Fees: $100.00 before October 1st or $110.00 thereafter
Location: USC School of Social Work, Irvine [ MAP ]
19600 Fairchild Road, Suite 130, Irvine, California 92612

Contact: Karen Redding, LCSW, PhD.: (949) 715-7007 | kredding@mac.com

… More than one-third of the entire prison and jail population in the United States is estimated to have serious mental illness. That means there are more than 350,000 people in our country with serious mental illness who are in jails and prisons—ten times the number of people in psychiatric hospitals.

- The Treatment of Persons with Mental Illness in Prisons and Jails: A State Survey published by the Treatment Advocacy Center, page 101.

The justice system keeps people with mental illness locked into a revolving-door cycle of incarceration, without ever providing the mental health treatment people need to get out of the system. Every stage of the legal-justice process perpetuates this cycle, setting people up for failure. In this day long seminar, experts from a legal, psychiatric, and social work perspective will inform and deepen our awareness of this growing problem and offer both legal and policy interventions to break the cycle. This Seminar will also allow for small group dialogue and discussion.

Our Panel will include:

Lori Rifkin, Esq, is a civil rights lawyer with over a decade of experience to ensure that people are treated in accordance with the Constitution's precepts of freedom, equality, and justice. She has worked on behalf of prisoners and parolees across the country in her role as a private civil rights lawyer, an ACLU staff attorney, and a senior trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Conrad Fuentes, MSW, LCSW, Clinical Associate Professor, Field Education, USC, School of Social Work. Having been a youth at high risk, Conrad will speak in an up-close and personal manner about his early trauma experiences, particularly in the midst of a gang culture with many of his peers having been sent to jail. Having access to psychotherapy and other mental health services changed his life and the path that he took in becoming a licensed clinical social worker. Today, he is dedicated to working with youth at high risk.

Edward Kaufman, MD, has worked in prisons and jails intermittently for 50 years. He has been the director of two mental health systems in correctional facilities and an evaluator of prison psychiatric care in many settings. He is currently writing a book on the evolution of criminalization of mental illness and possible solutions to this raging epidemic.

After attending this Seminar, participants will be able to:

  • Identify the stages of the legal-justice system that keeps the mentally-ill person in prison
  • Identify legal and social policy interventions to break this cycle

For Information Contact:
Karen Redding, LCSW, PhD.
(949) 715-7007
kredding@mac.com