NCJ Number
187053
Journal
Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Volume: 28 Issue: 4 Dated: 2000 Pages: 476-482
Date Published
2000
Length
7 pages
Annotation
On November 5, 1999, various Chicago-based mental health and criminal justice institutions sponsored the first public symposium to address the issue of mental health courts; this article summarizes the forum presentations and discussion.
Abstract
The concept of mental health courts has emerged largely as the result of the success of drug treatment courts, which have introduced drug treatment principles into the criminal justice process for addicted criminal defendants. Several jurisdictions have applied therapeutic jurisprudence concepts and drug court models to their work with offenders with mental illness. The symposium included a presentation by the presiding judge of the Broward County Mental Health Court (Florida), which was established in 1997 by administrative order. This court has operated on the assumption that the mental health system has failed to provide services to many who contact the criminal justice system. The court works to marshal and coordinate scarce mental health resources and develop new community resources. The court is a pretrial model that diverts offenders immediately into treatment rather than into the traditional criminal justice system. Currently, nonviolent misdemeanants are eligible to have their cases transferred to the mental health court. The mental health courts of Anchorage District Court (Alaska) and Marion County, Indiana, were also described in the symposium. This article summarizes the issues and concerns raised for discussion at the symposium following the presentations by the presiding mental health court judges. Legal issues were the focus of much of the discussion. Among the issues addressed were whether mental health courts will bring new resources to bear on mentally ill offenders or simply shift existing resources to a new priority population, the most efficient and effective use of the available mental health resources, and who makes treatment decisions if the court controls the resources. 4 references