Mental Health in the Criminal Justice System

Elizabeth Kelley is a criminal defense lawyer with a nationwide practice focused on representation and mitigation of people with mental disabilities. Elizabeth co-chairs the Criminal Justice Advisory Panel of The Arc’s National Center on Criminal Justice and Disability.  She is the editor of Representing People with Mental Disabilities: A Practical Guide for Criminal Defense Lawyers (2018), Representing People with Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Practical Guide for Criminal Defense Lawyers (2020), and Representing People with Dementia: A Practical Guide for Criminal Defense Lawyers (scheduled 2021) all published by the American Bar Association (ABA). She is active in the ABA, serving on the Council of the Criminal Justice Section, the Editorial Board of Criminal Justice Magazine, the Commission on Disability Rights, and the ABA President’s Working Group on Building Trust in the American Justice System. She has regularly reviewed books for The Federal Lawyer since 2005. In this episode, we discuss: How Elizabeth’s journey brought her to represent the underserved communities of the world The tremendous need is for knowledge of mental health in our criminal justice system The long game of networking for this very specialized niche The reasons that mental health continues to remain an invisible disability How we can better support our mental health community Why support, understanding, and empathy are what is needed in the mental health community Suicide rates in the criminal justice system, and how they were found Elizabeth’s new book, “Suicide and Its Impact on the Criminal Justice System” The impactful work of mental health court Website:https://www.elizabethkelleylaw.com/ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-kelley-14110430 Twitter: https://twitter.com/MentalHealthEsq

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