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WHAT IS A
MENTAL HEALTH COURT ?

Overview

      "Jails and prisons have become the largest mental health providers. Approximately 16% of jail detainees, probationers and state prison inmates are identified as mentally ill ... This figure means that on any given day, there are 283,000 persons with severe mental illnesses incarcerated in federal and state jails and prisons. In contrast, there are approximately 70,000 persons with severe mental illnesses in public psychiatric hospitals and 30 percent of them are forensic patients."
http://intotem.buffnet.net/mhw/37kmw.html

        Experience at all levels of the Criminal Justice System ( ( Judges, Prosecutors, Law Enforcement Officials, Public Defenders, Commissioners ... ) has shown that the community at large benefits when some of these individuals receive a combination of treatment and corrective action rather then simply being incarcerated for their crime.  The Lake County Sheriff's Office has long believed that the primary focus of Corrections should be in returning inmates back to society better then when they first came to our door.

        The Lake County Sheriff's Office is proud to have been an active partner in opening one of the few Mental Health Courts in Ohio.   The court, facilitated by Judge John Trebets at the Mentor Municipal Court, is a collaborative effort with Mentor Municipal Court, Painesville Municipal Court, Willoughby Municipal Court, Lake County Sheriff's Office, Lake County Prosecutor's Office, Lake County Public Defender's office, Neighboring, Pathways, Lake-Geauga Center, Extended Housing,  NAMI Lake County and the Lake County ADAMHS Board. 

        Each year approximately a quarter million  people who have severe mental illnesses are behind bars at any given moment.  Of these about half of those persons are arrested for non-violent offenses, such as trespassing or disorderly conduct.  In many of these cases they needed mental health treatment and intervention not incarceration.  This is not to say that these individuals do not need to be held accountable for their actions by our criminal justice system.  Rather, it means that the general public would and does benefit far greater through mental health treatment facilitated through a court ( Mental Health Court ) skilled at recognizing and dealing with those individuals in our society plagued by mental illness.

        Mental Health Courts not only return people back to society better then when they first arrived at the doors of the Criminal Justice System, they help to reduce the cost of Corrections.  Each year Lake County saves $250,000 a year by dealing with mentally ill offenders in court rather then incarcerating them in the detention facility.  Further this equally saves the mental health services by eliminating costly stays in mental health facilities where one bed can cost between $800-$1,500 per day.  These costs saved are ones that would have been incurred either through tax dollars, or through insurance dollars which effect everyone's monthly premiums.

        
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What Are Mental Health Courts ?
http://www.bazelon.org/issues/criminalization/publications/mentalhealthcourts/
 

        The following excerpts are taken directly from the above website to explain the role and purpose of the Mental Health Courts...

        Mental health courts straddle the two worlds of criminal law and mental health, requiring collaboration and consideration from practitioners in both fields. They typically involve judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and other court personnel who have expressed an interest in or possess particular mental health expertise. Today there are 25 to 30 of these courts, depending on the definition used, and more are being planned.

        Policymakers’ concern stems from the shockingly high percentage of jail and prison inmates who have mental illnesses, the incarceration of people with mental illnesses typically for much longer periods than other offenders, the fact that while incarcerated these inmates become especially vulnerable to assault and other forms of intimidation by other inmates and the awareness that mental health treatment in prison is rarely successful and usually not even adequate to combat the worsening of psychiatric conditions caused by incarceration itself. The following statistics illustrate the scope of the problem that needs to be addressed:

        Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, states and municipalities cannot discriminate against people with disabilities and must make reasonable accommodations in their programs and services. These legal obligations apply to courts as well as to diversion and alternative sentencing programs and practices administered by law enforcement, prosecutors and pretrial services, All jurisdictions have some ability to divert offenders from the criminal justice system, either by exercising discretion not to arrest or prosecute or by providing formal diversion programs or alternative sentencing. However, in practice many courts do not even consider such options for people with mental illnesses. This may occur because of stereotypes about mental illness, such as the erroneous belief that people with mental illnesses are more dangerous than others, or for lack of information about how people with mental illnesses could be successfully accommodated in these programs.

The Role of Mental Health Courts

        From the criminal law perspective, two rationales underlie the therapeutic court approach: first, to protect the public by addressing the mental illness that contributed to the criminal act, thereby reducing recidivism, and second, to recognize that criminal sanctions, whether intended as punishments or deterrents, are neither effective nor morally appropriate when mental illness is a significant cause of the criminal act. The goals of mental health courts, then, are: 1) to break the cycle of worsening mental illness and criminal behavior that begins with the failure of the community mental health system and is accelerated by the inadequacy of treatment in prisons and jails; and 2) to provide effective treatment options instead of the usual criminal sanctions for offenders with mental illnesses.

The Operation of Mental Health Courts

        Each mental health court is unique. Some have a single judge who presides over a mental health court held once or twice a week or as often as necessary. Eligible defendants usually include people who appear to have a mental illness; some courts also include people with developmental disabilities or head injuries. The courts typically have special court or pretrial-services personnel who are responsible for developing treatment plans and dedicated probation officers who monitor defendants’ compliance with the plans once incorporated into court orders.

Mental Health Court Procedures

        Mental health courts have a separate docket with a judge, prosecutors and defense attorneys who all have training in dealing with defendants with mental illnesses, who are familiar with existing service resources, and who are willing to work together with defendants and service providers to get the proper services for each defendant.

Voluntary Transfer into the Mental Health Court
        Transfer to the mental health court is entirely voluntary. Otherwise, singling out defendants with mental illnesses for separate and different treatment by the courts would violate the equal protection guarantee of the 14th Amendment and would likely violate the 6th Amendment right to a trial by jury and the prohibition against discrimination by a state program found in the Americans with Disabilities Act.