One of our current ongoing projects here at the MHCJ lab is our SDS Evaluation training study. Here’s some information about the study and the work being done to collect data.

We would like to introduce one of our graduate students: Betel Hernandez Betel is a second-year doctoral student in the Legal Psychology program here at UTEP. Her research interests include the perception and treatment of mental health within the justice system, how these factors are influenced by different cultural values, and how they may influence recidivism and reintegration. Betel is the lead graduate student on our Crime on the U.S./Mexico Border study. She’s been administrating and overseeing all recruiters and interviewers, as well as organizing all data received. * * * A fun fact about betel is that she has four cats, and all are unintentionally named after movie/tv show characters. She already has her next cat’s name, which also accidently follows the character name theme.

We would like to introduce one of our graduate students: Chelsea Queen Chelsea's research interests focus on pre-adjudication policy reform, specifically at the effectiveness of pretrial risk assessment tools and release on pretrial supervision. Additionally, Chelsea's work aims to further understand the decision-making process of such pretrial decisions by legal actors. Fun fact: If she wasn't pursuing legal psychology, she would have loved to be a marine biologist. Chelsea is always happiest when she’s in or on the water!

We would like to introduce one of our graduate students: Elena Vaudreuil Elena is a doctoral student here in the Legal Psychology program here at UTEP. Her research interests include the impact of personality pathologies and mental illness in offenders, risk assessment and prediction of recidivism. She’s currently working on her thesis which seeks to find ways in which we can discuss mental illness information to reduce stigma, in hopes to assist professionals, correctional workers and the general public to discuss mental illness in a way that reduces the negative associations that the labels of various mental illnesses may elicit. * * * A fun fact about Elena is that she loves to foster kittens from the Humane Society. She has fostered over 10 litters of kittens.

We’d like to give thanks to Andrea Martinez for all the hard work she’s dedicated to the Mental Health and Criminal Justice lab for the past three years. She has been offered a position at emergence health network as a crisis case manager. We wish you nothing but the best.

We would like to introduce one of our graduate students: Rebekah Adair Rebekah is a doctoral candidate in the Legal Psychology program here at UTEP. Her research interests surround justice-involved women, mental illness, and community reintegration. Rebekah is currently working on her dissertation and her team will be conducting interviews in the community with justice-involved women asking about barriers they are experiencing when seeking mental health treatment. This is particularly important in improving community services and outreach to better address the barriers women face when seeking out assistance. * * * A fun fact about Rebekah is she likes miniature things, for example mini brands are one of her obsessions. She finds them to be cute seeing a normal object extremely tiny. She’s also into morning walks before starting her day and is a stress cleaner, so going into her final year her home and office desk are going to be very spotless.

We would like to introduce our very own Lab Director: Dr. Jennifer Eno Louden Dr. Eno Louden received her doctoral degree in Psychology and Social Behavior from the University of California at Irvine in 2009. Dr. Eno Louden founded the MHCJ Lab in 2009 shortly after arriving at UTEP. She conducts research to improve the criminal justice system and ameliorate the stigma of mental illness and is passionate about teaching and mentoring students. * * * When she’s not working, she enjoys spending time with her 2- and 4-legged family members.

pre-pandemic lab photo

We are excited to be on Instagram!