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Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology Lamonica Harrison

Lamonica Harrison, Ph.D. Candidate
lamonica.harrison@wsu.edu
Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests:
Criminal Justice and Psychopathy, Criminology, Corrections, Mental Health and Correctional Policy Implementation and Practice.

Research and Teaching Experience:
In my work experience and volunteer experience as a Counselor/Therapist in Washington, D.C. government and the District of Columbia school district, I have had the opportunity to work as collaboratively and serve as a liaison with healthcare providers, researchers, and multidisciplinary staff, as well as with community agencies and partners, including those in educational settings in order to provide clinical care for individuals who were justice-involved  and sometimes serious mentally ill. My positions included monitoring ethical treatment and compliance with policies and practices set forth by department and agency guidelines. I have experience working with multidisciplinary teams where I have communicated barriers, challenges, and any other issues that affect the justice system process when discussing overall treatment needs for those who were justice-involved, overall advancing my skills in quick rapport building and verbal communication.  Working in these teams have also helped me develop and manage agency specific partnerships with other ongoing initiatives that implement policy and practices for unique populations such as the mentally ill who are justice involved and planning for re-entry. My formal training and education has allowed me to stay updated on new treatments, protocols, and licensure requirements in the field which helps assure the certainty of the level of experience and expertise needed to make adequate decisions for treatment needs for justice-involved mentally ill individuals in correctional and community correctional settings. I have experience working with children and adolescents as well as adult populations.

I have expertise in forensic documentation, a writing style used most often to capture not only the details of all parties being investigated in varying cases, but underlying details that may have contributed or lead to a specific incident involving justice-involved mentally ill individuals. Most reports included, but are not limited to, history of drug use, justice-involved (criminal) history, and any details that helped develop a full representation of the individuals involved. I have experience in other report writing that details and captures the need of each individual and area of concerns for justice-involved individuals with co-occurring disorders. This role advanced my skills with clinical interviewing and written communication and also included providing information detailing childhood history, trauma, criminal activities and involvement, and relationships with supports or relatives. I have experience administering various psychological assessments used in criminal justice settings such as: BDI-III, GAMMA, SCL-R90, PAS, PAI, MCMI-II.

My current research focuses on the implementation of state-level policy and how the process translating state-level policy works at the local and county levels when working with unique populations. This research aims to help aid in identifying how state and local agencies understand policy, how it is translated into practice, and how implementation is reliant on multiple and diverse agencies in order to comply with the expectations set in decrees or influential cases guiding policy and practices.

Thesis/Dissertation Chair: Dr. Faith Lutze

Positions Sought: Technical Assistance, Internal Affairs, Clinical Administrator, Correctional Treatment Specialist, Program Specialist, Criminal Investigations, Social Science Research Analyst- specializing in qualitative data