For Immediate Release

Wise, a licensed certified clinical social worker, was a health systems specialist for the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health.  She will assume her new duties on January 14, 2003.

Judge Ellen M. Heller, administrative judge for the Baltimore City circuit court, said, “Beverly Wise brings over two decades of experience working in forensic mental health systems in Washington, D.C., Maryland and New Hampshire.  She was also an instructor in the school of social work at the University of Michigan. With this background, she will be an excellent administrator for this important office.”
 
Before joining the Department of Mental Health in Washington, Wise spent nine years at the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center (Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene), most recently as director of community forensic services.  She holds a master’s in social work from Rutgers University in New Jersey.

“I have worked closely with Mr. Conti and the Medical Service staff in the past, and I have the highest respect for the work they do,” Wise said.  “For years, they have provided leadership in improving forensic services throughout Maryland, both because they are professionals and because they care about the courts and the people who find themselves involved with the legal system, and my goal is to continue that tradition.”

The Medical Service, with a staff of psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers, provides a broad range of support services for courts – District and Circuit – in Baltimore City, including pretrial evaluations of competency and responsibility, pre- and post-sentence evaluations, custody and supervised visitation evaluations, evaluation of juveniles charged as adults who have requested transfer to juvenile court, and assistance for victims of domestic violence.

The medical office also provides evaluation services in cases where a child is in need of assistance or supervision and termination-of-parental-rights cases.  In addition, the office teaches medical students, social work students, psychiatric residents and psychology interns from the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins medical schools.

Opened in 1925, the Baltimore Medical Service was one of the first offices in the United States to provide comprehensive support services to a court system; only one other jurisdiction in Maryland has a similar office.  During the nearly three decades that Conti was administrative director, the office played a major role in the development of forensic programs statewide, and Mr. Conti was viewed as a leader in the field.