By Jo Mathis
Legal News
We’ve all heard the reports: Prisons and jails are crowded with inmates suffering from mental illness because there is no alternative place. Not only is this a great expense to taxpayers, but once they’re released, untreated inmates continue to suffer and often repeat their offenses.
Relying on studies that show defendants who stick with their treatment and medication are also apt to stick to the straight and narrow, the Michigan House in September approved bills to expand mental health courts in the state.
Ingham County now runs the 55th District Mental Health Court under the supervision of Judge Tom Boyd.
The court is financed this first year with a $261,000 grant from the State Court Administrative Office, and will continue as long as the funding does, Boyd said, noting that there are three main goals.
“One is to protect the public from people who are off their medication and treatment,” he says. “The second is to reduce the expense of having people in jail, when treating them at home would be more cost-effective. The third is to provide them health care rather than jail.”
Ingham County’s Mental Health Court is now one of about 20 in the state, and Boyd has worked with those involved in running other county mental health courts to see what he can learn from them.
“I think they’re all a little different, and have a local feel to them,” he said. “I know ours certainly will.”
“The partnership fundamentally is the court, where we have a probation officer; Community Mental Health, where they have a case manager, a therapist, and psychiatrist; and the Michigan State University Department of Psychiatry, where we’ll get help from third-year, senior level psychiatry residents,” Boyd explained, noting that the ultimate goal is to make sure participants remain on their medication and treatment plans.
Also on board will be Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth, local law enforcement agencies and health and human services professionals.
Boyd is encouraged by the support for these courts.
“We’re at a time when people - regardless of their political perspective - see this as the right thing to do,” he says. “They may also be drawn to this because it’s fiscally conservative. But the point is, we now have people on the right and on the left agreeing that this is the approach we need to take. So it’s going to get a lot of legislative support, I think, in the next few years.”
The first session was held in mid-December.
“We think there’s some pent-up demand in the system, and there’s people with mental health issues already in the system that we’ll need to help out,” he said.
Defendants must agree to participate, and only those charged with misdemeanors are currently eligible. Discussions continue about when and how Mental Health Court will be made available to individuals convicted of felony offenses.
One participant is a young man whose mental health concerns left him with little motivation in life.
“He committed a crime, which is why he’s in the criminal justice system,” said Boyd. “But he won’t take his medication as prescribed. He won’t go to school. He won’t look for a job. He just doesn’t do anything … The idea is to get him back on the right track, get him back in compliance. Hopefully, that will put him back on the path where he can succeed with the rest of his life.”
The man now has a case manager and probation officer who will closely watch him, while a system of incentives and consequences has been clearly laid out for him.
The 2012 Michigan Mental Health Courts Annual Report and Evaluation Summary studied 10 Michigan mental health courts over a three-year period, and found:
• One year after beginning a mental health court program, mental health court participants’ recidivism rate was well over 300 percent lower than that of a comparison group of similar offenders. After 12 months, 5.26 percent of mental health court participants had been reconvicted, while 19.18 percent of the comparison group had been reconvicted during the same time frame.
• Mental health court participants continued to maintain a lower recidivism rate compared to similar offenders, even one year after mental health court services have ceased. After 30 months, 18.97 percent of mental health court participants had been reconvicted compared to 43.22 percent of the comparison group.
• Mental health court graduates improved their education, employment status, mental health, and quality of life. Ninety-seven percent were assessed as having improved their mental health and ninety-six percent were assessed as having improved quality of life as a result of the program.
It’s expected that about 60 Ingham County residents will go through Mental Health Court this first year. The court will meet once a week or as often as needed, depending on what’s going on in the lives of participants.
––––––––––––––––––––
Subscribe to the Legal News!
https://legalnews.com/Home/Subscription
Full access to public notices, articles, columns, archives, statistics, calendar and more
Day Pass Only $4.95!
One-County $80/year
Three-County & Full Pass also available
