The Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Mentally Retarded Offenders Program

• Published date: 01 April 1986
• Date: 01 April 1986
• DOI: 10.1177/003288558606600109
• Author: David White,Hubert Wood
• Subject Matter: Articles

77

The

Lancaster

County,

Pennsylvania,

Mentally

Retarded

Offenders

Program

David

White

and

Hubert

Wood*

*The

authors

are

co-directors

of

the

Program.

The

Lancaster

County

Mentally

Retarded

Of-

fenders

Program

(MRO)

is

the

only

program

in

the

United

States

which

has

combined

the

services

of

an

adult

probation

department

and

mental

health/mental

retardation

(MH/MR)

unit

to

deal

with

the

special

needs

of

mentally

retarded

offend-

ers.

Since

its

beginning

in

1980,

the

Lancaster

County

MRO

Program

has

won

awards

from

the

National

Association

of

Counties

and

Pennsylvania

MH/MR

Service

Providers

Association.

Programs

in

other

states

across

the

country

have

adopted

the

&dquo;Lancaster

County

model&dquo;

as

an

ideal

way

to

work

with

mentally

retarded

offenders.

Pennsylvania

has

recently

provided

funding

to

replicate

this

program

in

other

counties.

Issues

to

be

examined

include

whether

or

not

MRO

pro-

grams

can

be

effective

in

a

large

metropolitan

area

and

whether

the

M RO

program

model,

or

the

people

operating

the

model,

make

the

difference

for

men-

tally

retarded

offenders.

Lancaster

County

has

recently

expanded

their

program

to

begin

serving

juvenile

offenders.

The

special

needs

of

the

mentally

retarded

offender

cover

the

span

of

his/her

involvement

with

the

criminal

justice

system

-arrest,

prosecution,

incarceration,

and

placement

on

probation

or

parole.

The

community

mental

health/mental

retardation

(MH/MR)

system

has

often

been

unaware

of,

or

uninterested

in,

the

special

needs

of

mentally

retarded

offenders.

Once

a

retarded

citizen

becomes

an

offender,

the

advocate

system

tends

to

look

for

the

criminal

justice

system

to

assume

responsibility

for

the

client

and

his

actions.

Conversely,

the

criminal

justice

system

expects

MR

&dquo;experts&dquo;

to

provide

more

services

or

intervention

to

the

offend-

er.

Workers

in

both

the

criminal

justice

system

and

the

community

mental

health

and

mental

retardation

system

often

do

not

know

how

to

deal

effectively

with

the

reciprocal

systems,

or

do

not

have

time

to

deal

with

each

other’s

systems.

This

results

in

the

mentally