Dr. Thomas Kucharski is an Associate Professor of Psychology and as of January 2009 will be the interim 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 serves as a mental health consultant and monitor to the Federal Courts in the case US vs Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Department of Juvenile Justice, Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act. He also currently serves as a consultant to the Sacramento County Probation Department and the Philadelphia Department of Corrections. 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, and the mental health of victim’s family members and the exonerated.
