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Nancy Wolff, Ph.D. (Rutgers University) professor and economist, specializes in applied economic analyses of mental health interventions and policies. Since 1995, she has increasingly focused on the behavioral health-criminal justice dynamic. She began by estimating the costs of criminal justice encounters. In 1999, she was awarded an Atlantic Public Policy Fellowship to study the management of mentally disordered offenders in the United Kingdom. Her many hours in the field visiting police, jail, and court diversion programs there and in the United States led to a variety of articles on the behavioral health-criminal justice dynamic itself and related policies. It also inspired her to write a series of methodological and conceptual papers on the frameworks and designs currently used to study mental health and criminal justice services and interventions. Most recently, she has explored the prevalence of and factors predicting feelings of safety and physical and sexual victimization inside prison. Currently, her research focuses on developing reentry interventions that address the strengths and needs of people leaving prison, and the public policies that hinder their reentry. She served as the editor of the Journal of Offender Rehabilitation and is the founder of Books Behind Bars, a literacy program inside prison, for which she received a Russell Berrie Award for Making a Difference in 2008.

(732) 932-6635 (732) 932-1233 nwolff@ifh.rutgers.edu
Publications by Nancy Wolff

Helene White, Ph.D. (Rutgers University), professor and sociologist, specializes in longitudinal research on the antecedents, consequences, and co-morbidity of substance use and other problem behaviors in both community and high-risk samples. Her research has focused on the areas of alcohol and drug studies, delinquency and crime, violence, and prevention and evaluation research. Dr. White has co-authored one book, co-edited two books, and published more than 140 articles and chapters. She has served as a consultant and grant reviewer for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Justice, the National Science Foundation, the Centers for Substance Abuse Prevention, and ABMRF-the Foundation for Alcohol Research. Currently Dr. White serves on several journal editorial boards, advisory boards of major longitudinal studies and the board of a New Jersey drug treatment facility.

(732) 445-3579 (732) 445-3500 hewhite@rci.rutgers.edu
Publications by Helene White

Jeffrey Draine, Ph.D. (University of Pennsylvania), is an associate professor and social worker in the School of Social Policy and Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is also affiliated with the Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research within the Department of Psychiatry. He has an interest in effective community supports and services for people who have psychiatric disability, as well as the role of effective services in interaction with the criminal justice system. For the last 15 years, his work has focused largely on the process of reentering the community from jails and prisons and reducing the risk of re-incarceration. He specializes in developing and researching interventions and policy initiatives for consumers and survivors of mental illness. Much of his work is with randomized field trials. Priority areas for Dr. Draine are services that increase capacity for self-determination in community living and the reduction of the impact of the criminal justice system on individuals and communities.

(215) 349-8710 (215) 349-8715 jeffdraine@gmail.com
Publications by Jeffrey Draine

Steven Belenko, Ph.D. (Temple University), professor and criminologist, researches the impacts of substance abuse problems on crime and the criminal justice system. He is also interested in the delivery of effective substance abuse treatment and other health and social services to offenders in settings such as drug courts, pretrial supervision, corrections, and community. His research uses quantitative, qualitative, mapping, and economic methods. He has worked with policy and practitioner agencies to improve the diffusion of rigorous empirical research and evidence-based practice, including improved measurement and management information systems, training, and the development of systematic reviews of scientific evidence for treatment interventions in criminal justice settings. He is co-founder and co-director of the Center on Evidence-based Interventions for Crime and Addiction, and managing editor for the Campbell Collaboration’s Crime and Justice Group.

(215) 204-2211 (215) 283-1642 sbelenko@temple.edu
Publications by Steven Belenko

Richard Baron, M.A. (University of Pennsylvania), has worked over the past two decades on employment programming for persons with mental illness. As the Director of Matrix Research Institute, a Philadelphia-based private, nonprofit research organization, he served as principal investigator of more than a dozen funded research initiatives on employment, directed a National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR)-funded Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, and was awarded a Switzer Fellowship for independent research into the long-term career patterns of people with psychiatric disabilities. His work has consistently been in the context of strong partnership with provider and consumer stakeholders, and his training, consultation, and publication work has made him a leader in translating program research into policy, program, and practice actions for the field.

(215) 573-3472 (215) 349-8715 baronrc@mail.med.upenn.edu
Publications by Richard Baron

William H. Fisher, Ph.D. (University of Massachusetts Medical School) is professor of psychiatry and deputy director of the Center for Mental Health Services Research at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Fisher's academic research interests are in the areas of public mental health policy, the interface of the mental health and criminal justice systems, mental health law, psychiatric epidemiology, and research methodology. His career in mental health services research and evaluation includes work with the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health and consultation with state and federal mental health agencies and systems as well as academically based research. He received the Mental Health Section Award of the American Public Health Association in 2001, and currently is chair-elect of the Mental Health Section. He is editor for the Elsevier series.

(508) 856-8711 (508) 856-8700 bill.fisher@umassmed.edu
Publications by William H. Fisher