Doctoral Dissertation Research: Negotiating Institutional Complexity in Mental Health Courts

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Mental health courts are a type of specialty court, a relatively recent but quickly growing intervention within the court system that is part of a larger trend of criminal justice interventions aimed at decarceration. The key distinguishing feature linking these interventions is the hybridization of institutional logics, as the criminal justice system becomes engaged in service provision to reduce re-offending. This project investigates the operation of two urban mental health courts from the perspectives of both the court staff and its "clients," asking a) How do staff and clients draw on the competing logics of the service delivery and criminal justice systems? b) What shapes these processes? and c) What are the consequences for the court intervention and the logics themselves? Through a combination of in-depth interviews and ethnographic observation of court staff and clients, this project will gain a comprehensive vantage point on the processes by which competing logics are negotiated by actors differently positioned vis-a-vis the organizational setting. In so doing, it will extend the literature on institutional logics and bring medical sociologists and sociolegal scholars into conversation as well as contribute to literature on the changing role of the state in the lives of marginal groups through the frontline work carried out in public institutions.