MHCC in Chicago: “I’m Back! Now What? Who Cares?” Notes from Dr. Althouse

MHCC in Chicago: “I’m Back! Now What? Who Cares?”

Richard Althouse, Ph.D.
Immediate Past President, IACFP
Member, MHCC Advisory Board

This year’s annual Mental Health in Corrections Conference (MHCC) was again in Chicago, held at the Renaissance Blackstone Hotel April 18th through the 20th. The accommodations were very adequate, as might be expected at the Blackstone.

Annually, there are thousands of inmates returning to their communities (“I’m back”), often to communities that don’t want them (“Who cares?”) and, in some cases, communities to which they don’t want to return, and to communities that lack the resources to meet their employment, educational, housing, medical and mental health needs (“Now What?”). Re-entry challenges are often more overwhelming than many of these individuals can manage, and a high percentage recidivate or commit parole violations and are returned to jail or prison. Many experts agree that this “revolving door” process has to be minimized if the overcrowding and program challenges facing many counties and states is to be more effectively managed. Therefore, the primary program emphasis of this year’s MHCC was on reentry challenges and practices facing returning citizens.

The conference, primarily sponsored by the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology, was co-sponsored by the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and the International Association for Correctional and Forensic Psychology. Attendance at the conference was modest because of the negative impact of our economy on states’ budgets, and the absence of a passed federal budget on federal budgets. A number of potential attendees from the Federal Bureau of Prisons were unable to attend, lacking funding approval. Nonetheless, there were about 135 attendees, many students among them.

Plenary speakers included Joe Williams, founder and CEO of New Creations Community Outreach in Detroit, MI., who spoke about the importance of successful collaboration with faith-based and community organizations; Halbert Sullivan, CEO of the Fathers’ Support Center, in St. Louis, who discussed reunifying incarcerated fathers with their families and employment opportunities. Deborah Kratky, director of Capacity Building and Training for Workforce Solutions in Tarrant County, spoke about how subsidized transitional employment can help returning citizens get a fresh start “one step at a time.” Ashley Nellis, Ph.D., from The Sentencing Project, presented some of the challenges facing delinquents and young adults after release, and advocated for improving reentry services for this population. Eileen Henderson, from Restorative Justice in Toronto, Canada, and Detective Wendy Leaver, from the Toronto Police Service and their Sex Crimes Unit, spoke about their unusual and challenging work with sex offenders returning back to their communities through the “Circles of Support and Accountability/Mennonite Central Committee Ontario.” Finally, Ron and Catherine Tijerina, co-founders and co-directors of The RIDGE Project, Inc., in Defiance, OH, shared (at times tearfully) their personal experience with the challenges incarceration places on families, and the difficulties and necessity of keeping families with inmates together and in harmony. We were very fortunate in being able to provide these presenters for the conference!

In addition to these informing, inspirational, and at times moving presentations, there were workshops addressing various aspects of reentry, including community collaboration, teaching relationship skills, healthcare for returning veterans, emphasizing healthy lifestyles with high risk offenders, working with female offenders, and being informed about the additional consequences of incarceration so returning citizens are better prepared to meet reentry challenges such as the loss of voting rights, housing, employment, and educational barriers. Conference attendees—both professionals and students--left better informed about the challenges of reentry, the daunting tasks many communities have faced and are facing in attempting to manage these challenges, and how some have been successful. Needless to say, such efforts need to be expanded across the country!

As a student side benefit, a number of students received monetary awards for informational and research posters they prepared for the conference, and many attendees took advantage of the opportunity for a one-year free membership in IACFP!

Comments about the conference were very positive.

IACFP Executive Director John Gannon was able to join the MHCC Advisory Board in its discussion of future directions for the MHCC, and preliminary planning efforts are underway for next year’s conference. We will keep IACFP members posted!