NAMI Ask the Expert: The Criminal Legal System – Transformation to Health and Justice OD048

An on-demand video and transcript of the presentation are available here [opens in new tab].

About The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization dedicated to building better lives for the millions of Americans affected by mental illness. They are an alliance of more than 650 local Affiliates and 49 State organizations who work in your community to raise awareness and provide support and education to people with mental illness and their loved ones. Through awareness, advocacy and education, NAMI is committed to building stronger communities and a better future for everyone affected by mental illness.

Course Summary

Practice Level: Intermediate

This course, based on the Ask the Expert webinar series by NAMI, examines how the U.S. criminal legal system can be transformed toward health, equity, and public safety through evidence-informed policy and service strategies. The training reviews historical and structural drivers of racialized criminalization and health inequities, then connects these factors to contemporary challenges such as disrupted continuity of care, high post-release overdose and suicide risk, and pervasive collateral consequences of conviction records. Learners are introduced to emerging reforms, health-centered crisis response models, and access to medications for opioid use disorder and are guided toward practical advocacy actions that strengthen community-based care and reduce reliance on punitive systems. 

The course, with an intended audience of social workers, psychologists, marriage and family therapists, and counselors, strengthens clinical-systems competence in crisis response, continuity-of-care planning, and policy-informed advocacy for justice-involved individuals with mental health and substance use needs.

Course Format

This course contains a participant guide, practice test, and on-demand video. When you’re ready, purchase the course by clicking the “Add To Cart” or “Enroll” button. This will let you take the test, complete the course evaluation and receive your certificate for CE credits.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify major criminal-legal policy drivers that contribute to health inequities for justice-involved populations.
2. Describe evidence informed strategies that improve continuity of mental health and substance use care during reentry, including Medicaid reentry demonstrations and MOUD linkage models.
3. Analyze policy and service approaches that reduce harms in behavioral health crises by shifting from law-enforcement-led responses to health-centered crisis systems.

Course Syllabus

• Historical and structural drivers of criminalization and health inequities
• Health impacts of incarceration and reentry (overdose, suicide risk, continuity-of-care gaps)
• Reentry-focused health reforms (Medicaid Section 1115 demonstrations; MOUD access and linkage)
• Crisis response transformation and privacy considerations
• Collateral consequences, record relief strategies, and advocacy actions for systems change

Current References

Belcher, A. M., Smith, H., Welsh, C., Fitzsimons, H., Dalverny, A., Lasher, D., Coble, K., Greenblatt, A. D., Blue, T., Gordon, M., & Weintraub, E. (2025). Bridging the gap: Post-release outcome evaluation of the first jail-based telemedicine buprenorphine program. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 277, 112950.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2025.112950[opens in new tab]

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2023, April 17). Opportunities to test transition-related strategies to support community reentry and improve care transitions for individuals who are incarcerated (SMD# 23-003).https://www.medicaid.gov/federal-policy-guidance/downloads/smd23003.pdf[opens in new tab]

Center for Policing Equity. (2023, February 23). Redesigning public safety: Mental health emergency response (White paper).https://policingequity.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/CPE-WhitePaper-MentalHealth.pdf[opens in new tab]

DeGue, S., Fowler, K. A., & Calkins, C. (2016). Deaths due to use of lethal force by law enforcement: Findings from the National Violent Death Reporting System, 17 U.S. states, 2009–2012. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 51(5S3), S173–S187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2016.08.027[opens in new tab]

Friedmann, P. D., Wilson, D., Stopka, T. J., Bernson, D., Pivovarova, E., Ferguson, W., Hoskinson, R. A., Jr., Rottapel, R. E., Bovell-Ammon, B., Gaba, A., Morgan, J. R., Senst, T., Hayes, E., & Evans, E. A.; MassJCOIN Research Hub. (2025). Medications for opioid use disorder in county jails—Outcomes after release. The New England Journal of Medicine, 393(10), 994–1003. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsa2415987[opens in new tab]

Jang, M., Futterer, A., Jager-Hyman, S., Kessel, P., Fairfax-Columbo, J., Lim, S., & Candon, M. (2025). Post-release behavioral healthcare utilization and suicide risk among formerly incarcerated individuals. Health Affairs Scholar, 3(6), qxaf102. https://doi.org/10.1093/haschl/qxaf102[opens in new tab]

Kisa, A., & Kisa, S. (2025). Structural racism as a fundamental cause of health inequities: A scoping review. International Journal for Equity in Health, 24, 257. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-025-02644-7[opens in new tab]

Legal Action Center. (2022). Unchaining civil rights through quality health services & care (Issue brief). https://www.lac.org/assets/files/UnchainingCivilRightsThroughHealthCare.PDF[opens in new tab]

Peters, R. L., Fine, J., Newton, H., Dalack, G. W., Watson, A., & Hassmiller Lich, K. (2025). Mobile crisis effectiveness: A systematic review and associated functions and forms framework. BMC Health Services Research, 25, 13806. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-025-13806-2[opens in new tab]

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2020). National guidelines for behavioral health crisis care: A best practice toolkit.https://bja.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh186/files/media/document/samsha-national-guidelines.pdf[opens in new tab]

Wright, P., & Herivel, T. (Eds.). (2003). Prison nation: The warehousing of America’s poor. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203952627[opens in new tab]

Instructors

Deborah A. Reid, Senior Health Policy Attorney, Legal Action Center

Deborah joined LAC in April 2015, and she currently directs LAC’s legislative and policy work to protect the confidentiality of substance use disorder treatment and prevention records. She also participates in LAC’s advocacy to ensure implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for justice-involved individuals.

Prior to coming to LAC, Deborah was a senior attorney at the National Health Law Program, where her work focused on issues relating to reproductive health, health equity, Medicaid, and ACA implementation. Previously, she was also an attorney advisor in the Office of General Counsel of the US Commission on Civil Rights in Washington, DC, and a senior health care program planner analyst at the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. She has a JD from Rutgers School of Law-Newark; a Master’s of Professional Studies in health services administration from the New School for Social Research (Milano – The New School for Management and Policy); and a BA in Sociology from Rutgers University. She is a current board member of the Black Women’s Health Imperative.

Gabrielle de la Guéronnière, Vice President for Health and Justice Policy, Legal Action Center

Gabrielle de la Guéronnière leads LAC’s national policy advocacy to expand and improve the health responses to substance use disorders, and to end discrimination against people with drug and alcohol histories and arrest or conviction records. After joining LAC’s Washington, DC office in 2003, Ms. de la Guéronnière directed LAC’s federal advocacy toward successful inclusion of strong addiction and mental health provisions in the Affordable Care Act and passage into law of the Second Chance Act reentry legislation.

Ms. de la Guéronnière currently works nationally to improve health access for people with addiction and mental health service needs, including those involved in the criminal legal system. She is a member of LAC’s No Health = No Justice campaign team which, in 2018, launched a multi-state advocacy and organizing campaign to highlight the intersection of historic and ongoing racism in the health care and criminal legal systems. She also works to eliminate legal and policy barriers faced by people with arrest and conviction records and substance use histories.

Ms. de la Guéronnière is a frequent presenter and technical assistance provider nationally on a variety of health and criminal justice policy issues and is a graduate of Boston University and American University’s Washington College of Law.

Nicole Errickson, LCSW

Nicole is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in the state of Georgia. She brings over 19 years experience in the social work field, primarily working in school systems as a school social worker and with the McKinney-Vento grant. Over her career, Nicole has had several opportunities to help develop and execute professional development events. Nicole has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of South Alabama and a Masters in Social Work from the University of Alabama.

Accreditation Approval Statements

CE4Less.com is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. CE4Less.com maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

CE4Less.com, provider #1115, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 8/8/24-8/8/27.

Social workers completing this course receive 1 general continuing education credits.

We are committed to providing our learners with unbiased information. CE4Less never accepts commercial support and our authors have no significant financial or other conflicts of interest pertaining to the material.