Dr. Thomas Kucharski is a Full Professor of Psychology and former Chair of the Department of Psychology. He is also the Chair of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at John Jay and former Director of the NYPD/ John Jay program, Managing Situations with Mentally Ill Persons. Prior to coming to John Jay Professor Kucharski was a forensic psychologist and chief psychologist with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Director of Forensic Mental Health, Westchester Department of Corrections, Director of the Taunton Secure Care Program and a forensic psychologist at the Bridgewater State Hospital in Massachusetts. He completed forensic psychology supervision in 1989 with the Massachusetts Department of Forensic Mental Health. He served for 7 years as a mental health consultant and monitor to the Federal Courts in the case US vs Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Department of Juvenile Justice, brought under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act. He  served as a consultant to the Sacramento County Probation Department and the Philadelphia Department of Corrections. He has testified in Federal Court in 38 states and several state courts on issues of competency to stand trial, criminal responsibilty, diminished capacity and sentencing, death penalty mitigation, juvenile transfer, sex offender risk assessment and civil committment.  He has also testified in personal injury, wrongful death involving prison suicide cases and conducts both clinical forensic and forensic neuropsychological evaluations. His main research interests are in forensic psychological evaluation, specifically the detection of malingering and denial. Recent interests include clemency in death penalty cases, characteristics of those wrongfully convicted in capital cases, the mental health of victim’s family members and the effects of suppervision and treatment in sex offender recidivism .