Karen Bouffard

Karen Bouffard is a health care reporter at The Detroit News. Her project will study what the United States might learn from Norway’s approaches to the overlap of mental health and criminal justice.

• Norway's lessons for Mich.'s prisons: How kinder prisons and more mental health services reduce incarceration in Norway.

• Fatal assault exposes shortages: Group home death in Wayne demonstrates lack of beds for psychiatric care.

• Mentally ill teen caught in system: Darian Smith-Blackmon was found incompetent to stand trial, but he awaits a psychiatric bed.

• Why psychotic killers get care, not prison time in Norway

• Treatment team sees successes: At-home care, peer support, help speed recovery for those diagnosed with mental health issues.

• Woodland treats Mich.’s severely ill: The Whitmore Lake prison offers art and music therapy to help stabilize mentally ill prisoners.

• One inmate's story: Growing up ill: Christopher Goike talks about his mental disorders and his treatment at the Woodland Center.

• Treatment courts look to rehab: State's 188 'problem-solving' courts help veterans and those with mental health or substance issues.

• States look to Norway model: North Dakota, Oregon offer Michigan examples of how to create more effective prisons.

• Why we produced this special report: Reporter Karen Bouffard traveled to Norway to study that country's model of rehabilitative justice.