Law Commons^™

Making Deflection The New Diversion For Drug Offenders, Kay L. Levine, Joshua C. Hinkle, Elizabeth Griffiths

Faculty Articles

The argument unfolds as follows. In Part I, we describe the origins and operation of deflection programs that currently exist in the United States and present the published empirical evidence about their effect on recidivism rates, as well as police and user population responses to them. We specifically discuss the LEAD template from Seattle, in addition to other models in Massachusetts and Texas. In Part II, we take a closer look at how conventional policing differs from the pre-arrest diversion program that was recently instituted in Atlanta. Using data from an original dataset of all 2012 felony drug arrests in …

Intersectionality In The Opioid Crisis: Anti-Black Racism And White, Pregnant, Opioid Users, Craig Konnoth

Publications

No abstract provided.

Capitalizing On Healthy Lawyers: The Business Case For Law Firms To Promote And Prioritize Lawyer Well-Being, Jarrod F. Reich

Faculty Scholarship

This Article is the first to make the business case for firms to promote and prioritize lawyer well-being. For more than three decades, quantitative research has demonstrated that lawyers suffer from depression, anxiety, and addiction far in excess of the general population. Since that time, there have been many calls within and outside the profession for changes to be made to promote, prioritize, and improve lawyer well-being, particularly because many aspects of the current law school and law firm models exacerbate mental health and addiction issues, as well as overall law student and lawyer distress. These calls for change, made …

'Of Sound Mind And Body': A Call For Universal Drug Screening For All Newborns, Frank Vandervort, Vincent J. Palusci

Book Chapters

Substance abuse is a major medical and social problem. Estimates suggest that each year some 15 percent of the 4 million babies born in the United States are exposed to drugs or alcohol. Research demonstrates that exposure to these substances is harmful to the children in both the short term and across their developmental trajectory. This chapter summarizes the harms that might result from such prenatal exposure and considers the ways that both federal and state law respond to this. The chapter argues for universal drug testing of newborns in an effort to ascertain whether they have been prenatally exposed …

Capitalizing On Healthy Lawyers: The Business Case For Law Firms To Promote And Prioritize Lawyer Well-Being, Jarrod F. Reich

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This Article is the first to make the business case for firms to promote and prioritize lawyer well-being. For more than three decades, quantitative research has demonstrated that lawyers suffer from depression, anxiety, and addiction far in excess of the general population. Since that time, there have been many calls within and outside the profession for changes to be made to promote, prioritize, and improve lawyer well-being, particularly as many aspects of the current law school and law firm models exacerbate mental health and addiction issues, as well as overall law student and lawyer distress. These calls for change, made …

About A Revolution: Toward Integrated Treatment In Drug And Mental Health Courts, Sara Gordon

Scholarly Works

This Article examines specialty courts, including drug, alcohol, and mental health courts, which proponents claim created a revolution in criminal justice. Defendants whose underlying crime is the result of a substance use disorder or a mental health disorder can choose to be diverted into a specialty court, where they receive treatment instead of punishment. Many of these individuals, however, do not just suffer from a substance use disorder or a mental health disorder; instead, many have a “co-occurring disorder.” Approximately 8.9 million American adults have co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders, and almost half of individuals who meet diagnostic …

Healthism In Tort Law, Elizabeth Weeks

Scholarly Works

This article draws on the author's recently published book, Healthism: Health Status Discrimination and the Law (with Jessica L. Roberts) (Cambridge University Press 2018), examining tort law doctrine and policy for examples of differential treatment of health status or behaviors. Just as scholars previously have drawn attention to discrimination based on race, sex, age, and other protected categories in tort law, the article urges similar examination of tort law's potential to discriminate against the unhealthy. The article discusses the potential for healthism in the reasonably prudent person standard of care, contributory negligence, assumption of the risk, noneconomic damages caps, impaired …

The Moderating Relationship Of Comorbid Psychopathology And Treatment Outcome For Young Adult Offenders In Drug Court, Patrick Mcgonigal, Kathleen A. Moore, Matthew Scott Young

Mental Health Law & Policy Faculty Publications

Title: The moderating relationship of comorbid psychopathology and treatment outcome for young adult offenders in drug court.

Background: The drug court system is an alternative to incarceration that provides offenders with non-violent, substance motivated crimes with an opportunity to dismiss their charges and undergo a rigorous substance abuse treatment program. It is unknown whether drug court is effective for young adult clients and the role of co-occurring psychopathology within this context.

Methods: This study evaluated the overall effectiveness of a drug court system applied to young adult offenders ages 18-26, and additionally explored the moderating relationship of psychiatric symptoms on …

Sports Corruption: The History And Challenges Of Anti-Doping Regimes In The U.S. And Abroad, Shlomo Fischer

Center for the Advancement of Public Integrity (Inactive)

The International Olympic Committee first began drug-testing in response to the death of Knud Enemark Jensen, a Danish cyclist who collapsed of heatstroke during the 1960 Olympics in Rome and whose autopsy suggested that amphetamines played a role in his death. A wide range of performance enhancing substances was formally banned, and doping tests were administered to preserve the integrity of competition and to protect the health of athletes. The IOC’s initial regime was neither systematic nor robust, lacking both methodologically and technologically. However, the gap between doping and monitoring gradually began to close as testing became more accurate and …

The Use And Abuse Of Mutual-Support Programs In Drug Courts, Sara Gordon

Scholarly Works

There is a large gap between what we know about the disease of addiction and its appropriate treatment, and the treatment received by individuals who are ordered into treatment as a condition of participation in drug court. Most medical professionals are not appropriately trained about addiction and most addiction treatment providers do not have the education and training necessary to provide appropriate evidence-based services to individuals who are referred by drug courts for addiction treatment. This disconnect between our understanding of addiction and available addiction treatment has wide-reaching impact for individuals who attempt to receive medical care for addiction in …

The Stereotyped Offender: Domestic Violence And The Failure Of Intervention [Batterer Intervention Program (Bip) Standards Data, As Of 2015], Carolyn B. Ramsey

Research Data

These 19 comparative data tables relating to state and local certification standards for batterer intervention programs (BIPs), as of 2015, are electronic Appendices B-T to Carolyn B. Ramsey, The Stereotyped Offender: Domestic Violence and the Failure of Intervention, 120 Penn. St. L. Rev. 337 (2015), available at http://scholar.law.colorado.edu/articles/56/. Appendix A is not reproduced here because it simply contains citations to the state and local standards, but it is published with the journal article.

A Liberal Dilemma: Respecting Autonomy While Also Protecting Inchoate Children From Prenatal Substance Abuse., Andrew J. Weisberg, Frank E. Vandervort

Articles

Substance abuse is a significant social problem in America. It is estimated that some eighteen million Americans have an alcohol abuse problem and that almost five million have a drug abuse problem. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, substance abuse costs some $700 billion per year Substance abuse is a major contributor to child maltreatment. It is estimated that between one- and two-thirds of cases in which children enter foster care are linked to parental substance abuse. Unfortunately, this may be an underestimate as recent research suggests that many cases, particularly cases in which children have been exposed …

Drink Like A Lawyer: The Neuroscience Of Substance Use And Its Impact On Cognitive Wellness, Debra S. Austin

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Lawyers suffer from higher levels of anxiety and depression than the rest of the population, but most do not enter law school with these mental health issues. Disciplinary actions against attorneys involve substance abuse 50 to 75 percent of the time. However, neuroscience research has shown that both the brain and the genes enjoy the power of plasticity, which means that personal choices and environments shape the development of lawyers throughout their lives. Legal educators need a better understanding of what aspects or characteristics of legal education contribute to the decline in mental health of law students, lawyers, and judges, …

Science And The New Rehabilitation, Meghan J. Ryan

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Rehabilitation’s making a comeback. Long thought to be an outdated approach to punishment, rehabilitation is reemerging in the wake of scientific advances. Not only have these advances in the fields of pharmacology, genetics, and neuroscience brought new rehabilitative possibilities, but the media’s communication of these advances to the general public have set the stage for rehabilitation’s reprise. The media constantly pummels the general public with reports of scientific breakthroughs like functional magnetic resonance imaging, prepping the public to be more accepting of deterministic viewpoints and to be more open to the possibility of transforming individuals. The rehabilitation that is emerging, …

The Stereotyped Offender: Domestic Violence And The Failure Of Intervention, Carolyn B. Ramsey

Publications

Scholars and battered women's advocates now recognize that many facets of the legal response to intimate-partner abuse stereotype victims and harm abuse survivors who do not fit commonly accepted paradigms. However, it is less often acknowledged that the feminist analysis of domestic violence also tends to stereotype offenders and that state action, including court-mandated batterer intervention, is premised on these offender stereotypes. The feminist approach can be faulted for minimizing or denying the role of substance abuse, mental illness, childhood trauma, race, culture, and poverty in intimate-partner abuse. Moreover, those arrested for domestic violence crimes now include heterosexual women, lesbians, …

A Clustering Method To Identify Who Benefits Most From The Treatment Group In Clinical Trials, Beom S. Lee, Pranab K. Sen, Nan Park, Roger A. Boothroyd, Roger H. Peters, David A. Chiriboga

Mental Health Law & Policy Faculty Publications

In randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the most compelling need is to determine whether the treatment condition was more effective than control. However, it is generally recognized that not all participants in the treatment group of most clinical trials benefit equally. While subgroup analyses are often used to compare treatment effectiveness across pre-determined subgroups categorized by patient characteristics, methods to empirically identify naturally occurring clusters of persons who benefit most from the treatment group have rarely been implemented. This article provides a modeling framework to accomplish this important task. Utilizing information about individuals from the treatment group who had poor outcomes, …

Equality Standards For Health Insurance Coverage: Will The Mental Health Parity And Addiction Equity Act End The Discrimination?, Ellen M. Weber

Faculty Scholarship

Congress enacted the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act in 2008 to end discriminatory health insurance coverage for persons with mental health and substance use disorders in large employer health plans. Adopting a comprehensive regulatory approach akin to other civil rights laws, the Parity Act requires “equity” in all plan features, including cost-sharing, durational limits and, most critically, the plan management practices that are used to deny many families medically necessary behavioral health care. Beginning in 2014, all health plans regulated by the Affordable Care Act must also comply with parity standards, effectively ending the second-class insurance status of …

Guest Editors’ Introduction To Special Issue On Substance Abuse And Addiction In Family Courts, Barbara A. Babb, Gloria Danziger, Judith D. Moran

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Finding Power, Fighting Power (Or The Perpetual Motion Machine), Mae Quinn

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Comparative Law: Alcohol, Drug Abuse & Jurisprudence From The United States To Korea, Hyun J. Cho

LLM Theses and Essays

Human beings have struggled against alcohol and drug addiction since the beginning of history. All kinds of possible ways have been used to treat addicts effectively, such as segregation, whipping, sterilization, or execution. Like the ancient methods used to treat the disabled, these methods used to treat alcoholic and drug addicts stemmed mainly from ignorance and prejudice. Through trial and error, a fresh approach of treating alcoholism and drug addiction as a disease has emerged. This new perspective has created drug courts and a movement called Alcoholics Anonymous that have shown successful results, in helping create greater protection under the …

Detection And Prevalence Of Substance Use Among Juvenile Detainees, Us Department Of Justice

Juvenile Justice Bulletin

No abstract provided.

A Delicate Task: Balancing The Rights Of Children And Mothers In Parental Termination Proceedings, Catherine J. Ross

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This article considers the independent liberty interests of children in foster care and their mothers in parental termination proceedings. Federal reforms enacted in 1997 impose a mandatory deadline for the state to terminate parental rights. That policy erroneously presumes that the passage of time suffices to establish parental fault and satisfies a parent's due process rights to her child. The policy also fails to protect the minority of children in foster care who assert an interest in preserving a safe relationship with mothers who are unlikely to regain custody within the state's time frame - including many substance abusers, incarcerated …

Editor's Observations: The Geology Of Drug Policy In 2002, Frank O. Bowman Iii

Faculty Publications

Public concern about drug abuse as a major issue in American life may be ebbing. The notion that "the drug war is a failure" has become the common wisdom in academic and journalistic circles. Support for routine and lengthy imprisonment of non-violent drug offenders may be eroding, even among the prosecutors, police, and judges whose job it is to enforce the law. Anger among African American, Latino, and other minority communities at the perceived discriminatory enforcement of drug laws is simmering and may begin to boil over in ways that effect the political terrain. And after the events of September …

Drugs In The Heartland: Methamphetamine Use In Rural Nebraska, Us Department Of Justice

National Institute of Justice Research in Brief

No abstract provided.

Baltimore City’S Child-Focused Court, Barbara A. Babb, Judith D. Moran

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Substance Abuse, Families, And Unified Family Courts: The Creation Of A Caring Justice System, Barbara A. Babb, Judith D. Moran

All Faculty Scholarship

This article proposes an approach to family law decision-making tailored to assist families plagued by substance abuse. Substance abuse is linked to social, health, and economic problems facing Americans today and is a factor for a substantial number of family law litigants. By failing to address substance abuse issues, the family repeatedly may need to seek court intervention. The unified family court model is the concept of a single court that coordinates the work of independent agencies and tribunals, each with some limited role in resolving the problems incident to a family's legal matters. Professor Babb has created an interdisciplinary …

Domestic Violence, Substance Abuse And Child Welfare: The Legal System's Response, Jane C. Murphy, Margaret J. Potthast

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article begins by exploring and documenting the connections between domestic violence, substance abuse, and child abuse. Part II of the Article examines the legal system's response to child protection cases in which maternal abuse and, in some cases, substance abuse are present. This section begins by describing the shifting theories underlying child welfare in this country. It then contrasts these theories with child welfare practice by reporting the results of a study of eighty-five Child in Need of Assistance (CINA) cases in four jurisdictions in Maryland. Although the study examines a limited sample, the cases examined confirm the strong …

Drug Treatment Courts: Evolution, Evaluation, And Future Directions, Gloria Danziger, Jeffrey Kuhn

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Is California Winning The War On Drug And Alcohol Abuse?, Senate Select Committee On Substance Abuse

California Senate

No abstract provided.

Status Of Drug Testing In The Workplace, Senate Select Committee On Substance Abuse

California Senate

No abstract provided.