Double Jeopardy: Adolescent Offenders With Mental Disorders

The MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice has sponsored a series of monographs on mental health and juvenile justice. Double Jeopardy: Adolescent Offenders With Mental Disorders, by Thomas Grisso, is the first book in this series and represents a wise choice both in content and choice of author. The book is effective and authoritative and directed precisely where it is needed most: the plight of children with bona fide mental illness who face the gauntlet of the juvenile and adult justice systems. Grisso, a professor of psychiatry and coordinator of the law and psychiatry program at the University of Massachusetts medical school, is arguably the country's leading authority on these issues. He is the author of the MAYSI, a screening instrument used by probation departments nationwide and of Youth on Trial: A Developmental Perspective on Juvenile Justice (1), a superb resource on the issue of juvenile offenders. He is particularly well equipped to lay out a conceptual framework for both pragmatic practice and future studies, both forensic and psychiatric.

Grisso's writing style is clear and articulate. Although the conceptual material may be new to a nonforensically trained mental health professional, it nonetheless is accessible and useful. He begins by laying out the importance and scope of the problem. The unconscionable maltreatment of large numbers of children with mental illness in the juvenile justice system is presented factually, and the capricious waiver system—of children into the adult criminal justice systems—is described. Vital information about screening and assessment is included. In addition, facts and figures are included that are useful to advocates, would-be contributors to the field, practicing mental health professionals, and attorneys and probation administrators.

Double Jeopardy also describes a three-part conceptual model that begins with the obligation of society to provide specialized mental health care treatment to persons with mental illness who are in detention—the custodial obligation. Grisso carefully outlines the argument that the obligation to provide diagnostic and treatment services is not legally avoidable. On these grounds, far more services need to be provided than are currently available. The author then moves to the issue of due process for juveniles and speaks to the issues of Miranda warnings, competence, developmental capacity to understand proceedings, and the due process rights that are ostensibly guaranteed to all U.S. citizens. Often these rights are effectively not extended to juveniles, even though these youths are going to end up in adult courts. For example, children who are developmentally immature, mentally retarded, or mentally ill are not able to understand their rights.

The third conceptual pillar is public safety. This issue, so often neglected by mental health professionals, is critical to obtaining credibility in the sphere of forensics and public policy. The bottom line is that public safety cannot be neglected, and, to the extent that mental health advocates, clinicians, and forensic experts are unwilling to consider it, they will continue to be viewed askance by judges and others. Included in this densely packed but accessible volume are discussions of concrete strategies for improving public policy and research. All these strategies are substantive.

I strongly recommend this book to mental health professionals and juvenile justice policy makers at all levels. The book would also make a good gift for your local juvenile court judge.

Dr. Arredondo is medical director of EMQ Children and Family Services in Campbell, California.