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An Exploration of Networks among People with Serious Mental Illnesses in theCriminal Justice SystemKelli E. Canada, University of Chicago (kecanada22@yahoo.com)Existing literature supports a reduction in recidivism and increase in service use among mentalhealth court (MHC) participants but there is no empirical support for factors promotingoutcomes, and how MHCs influence participants’ lives is nearly non-existent in the literature.Using mixed-methods, this paper explores MHC participants’ experiences and one possiblefactor associated with outcomes, networks. The qualitative component explores participants’experience with networks while in the MHC. The quantitative component investigates the rolenetwork factors play in treatment engagement and recidivism. Participants in two mid-westernMHCs (n=80) completed a structured interview involving survey questions and empiricallytestedmeasures. A purposive sub-sample (n=26) completed 60-minute semi-structuredinterviews. Two salient themes emerged from the qualitative analysis: 1) peers are criticalcomponents of their network in the context of treatment; and keeping involved in activitiesrelated to recovery (i.e., working at halfway house, taking a leadership role in AA) helped ensurethat their networks were full of people with similar goals; 2) the importance of perceiving thatproviders care and that they are working collaboratively toward shared goals. The quantitativeanalysis supports the importance of network factors in recovery. Density is positively associatedwith treatment adherence and having friends and family who use drugs is negatively associated.Density was not associated with recidivism.Perceptions of Reintegrative Shaming in Mental Health CourtBradley R. Ray, Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (bradray@iupui.edu)Despite differences in geographic regions, teams, and the mix of treatments and servicesavailable, studies consistently find that mental health courts (MHCs) can be successful inreducing re-offending. Social scientific theories offer an excellent way for researchers to explainwhat it is about MHCs that, in spite of their differences, reduces subsequent criminal behaviors.This study suggests Braithwaite’s reintegrative shaming theory as a possible theoreticalexplanation. According to the theory, reintegrative shame is disapproval of behavior, not aperson, which is communicated in a respectful manner, and concludes with a ceremony orgesture that decertifies the offender as deviant and welcomes them back into the community. Incontrast, stigmatizing shame involves labelling offenders as deviant and casting them out of thecommunity. The key prediction of the theory is that stigmatizing shame increases subsequentcriminal behavior while reintegrative shame reduces subsequent criminal behavior. Survey itemsdesigned to measure the theory’s key concepts in a criminal justice context were administered to34 MHC participants immediately following their graduation ceremony. The results show thatparticipants who completed the MHC process were more likely to have experienced reintegrativeshaming than stigmatizing shaming. We argue that despite differences among MHCs, those who76