Mental Health Courts -- Pro & Con

TedxTalk -- "The High Price of Criminalizing Mental Illness by Wendy Lindley, occupational therapist, lawyer, and judge.

Bazelon Center on Mental Health Law's take on
Mental Health Courts:

The  Bazelon Center believes the best approach to avoiding the criminalization of   people with mental illnesses is not to create more courts, but to ensure timely access to the services and supports that are crucial to people with serious  mental illness. 

Mental health courts may provide immediate relief to  criminal justice institutions already full to the brim, but alone they cannot   solve the systemic problems that cause people with mental illnesses to be  arrested and incarcerated in disproportionate numbers.

These courts also present  some unintended negative consequences.  For instance, because mental health courts can leverage access to needed community services, they can inadvertently  create incentives to arrest people to get them into services. 

Because of this  and other  potential problems, mental health courts should  be used, if at  all, with great caution, only when defendants face  significant jail or prison  sentences, and only as an interim measure as a  part of a broad reform of  public systems within the community. 

http://www.bazelon.org/Where-We-Stand/Access-to-Services/Diversion-from-Incarceration-and-Reentry-/Mental-Health-Courts.asphx

The Concerns of the Bazelon Center appear to have been realized in Colorado --- People with Serious Mental Illness and their families are trying to get into the Criminal Justice System --- TO ACCESS TREATMENT.

Dec. 2023

The Effectiveness of Mental Health Courts in Reducing Recidivism and Police Contact: A Systematic Review (2019)

Abstract

Mental health courts were created to help criminal defendants who have a mental illness that significantly contributes to their criminal offense.

The purpose of this systematic literature review is to assess the current evidence to address the question, "How effective are mental health courts in reducing recidivism and police contact?"

Systematic literature searches of eight electronic databases were performed. A total of 2590 unique citations were identified. Of these, 20 studies were included in the final analysis.

The results of this systematic review suggest there is some evidence to show that mental health courts help to reduce recidivism rates, but the effect on police contact is less clear.

Results also suggest case managers or access to vocational and housing services may be important components of effective mental health courts.

The Power of Lived Experience: A Peer-Run Mental Health Court’s Approach to Justice (2024)

PRA (Policy Research Associates)