Dr. Slate is Professor and former Chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology at Florida Southern University. He is a national expert on the topic of mentally ill offenders in the criminal justice system, with a book entitled "Criminalization of Mental Illness: Crisis and Opportunity for the Justice System" published by Carolina Academic Press due out soon http://www.cap-press.com/books/1781 He has testified before the United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime, on the topic of The Impact of the Mentally Ill Offender on the Criminal Justice System, in Washington, D.C., in 2000, and served on the National Board of Directors of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) -Governor-appointed member of Florida's Mental Health & Substance Abuse Commission.