If you become aware that an individual receiving services from you is incarcerated, we suggest that you contact the Community Services Board affiliated with that jail. The CSB that serves a regional or local jail may differ from the CSB associated with the person’s residence. Oftentimes, the CSB for that jail only provides crisis prescreening assessments and may not be the primary mental health provider in the jail. Instead, most jails have in-house mental health providers or contract with a third-party medical provider.
Connecting with the medical provider at the jail and sharing information about diagnosis and medications will assist the jail in providing adequate services. The jail and/or the CSB can then notify you at the point of re-entry and coordinate transition of care.
For more information about how to support a client, visit the Forensic Information for Individuals and Families page.
For more information on how Virginia’s Community Services Boards support forensic patients, visit Forensic Information for CSBs.
Forensic Evaluations
When the court has a question about a defendant’s mental health and how it may impact his or her current ability to participate in court, or how their mental illness may have impacted their behavior during a crime, the court will order a forensic evaluation. The most common evaluations are for Competency to Stand Trial and Mental State at the Time of the Offense, but the court may order other evaluations.
If your client has pending legal charges and you have concerns about how the individual’s past mental illness may of impacted their thinking and behavior at the time of the alleged crime, or you believe their current symptoms of mental illness may negatively influence their ability to participate rationally in court, you are free to contact the defendant’s attorney and provide that information, with your client’s permission. Only the judge or attorneys may request court-ordered mental health evaluations.
You may be asked by a mental health treatment provider or a forensic evaluator about treatment to be used in a forensic evaluation. If this occurs, it is possible the court may subpoena you to provide direct testimony about the information you provided. If this occurs, you will be a fact witness and not expected to provide an opinion about the psycho-legal question before the court (e.g., the defendant’s competency to stand trial or mental state at the time of the offense). This is for the forensic evaluator to opine and the judge (or jury) to decide.
