Mental Health Courts

• Author: Jennifer Johnson
• Pages: 171-193

171

Mental Health Courts

Jennifer Johnson

Chapter

11

“They want to put my client in a mental health court. Is this a good thing?”

The typical lawyerly response would be, “that depends.” This chapter by

Attorney Jennifer Johnson describes the essential elements of a mental

health court, as well as discusses more complicated issues such as the

collateral consequences of a client’s participation in a mental health court,

confidentiality, and the ethical implications of functioning as a team member.

In this editor’s opinion, as with any case, you as a defense lawyer repre-

senting someone with a mental disability must ask if you have a triable case.

Although your client may have a diagnosable mental illness or intellectual/

developmental disability, there may be valid pretrial or trial issues that should

be litigated, in which case, the case might be handled by a traditional court. As

a lawyer, in consultation with your client, you should ask if this is a case where

an acquittal or dismissal is possible. If so, you should weigh that against the

guilty plea, which is often the price of admission in a mental health court, and

as such, carries the collateral consequences of a criminal conviction.

• • •

This chapter focuses on mental health courts and how they help manage

our growing public health and public safety crisis in a way that is both just

and humane. One important point to keep in mind is that mental health

courts vary dramatically from one jurisdiction to another in a way that other

problem-solving courts do not. There is no simple how-to guide on mental

health courts because in the words of one leading researcher in the field, “If

you’ve seen one mental health court, you’ve seen one mental health court.”

172 • Representing People with Mental Disabilities

What Is a Mental Health Court and

Why Do We Have One?

In the late 1990s, there were only a few mental health courts in the United

States. These therapeutic, problem-solving courts were modeled after

drug courts with a specific focus on the increasing number of people with

mental health issues working their way through the criminal justice sys-

tem. Today, there are more than 360 adult mental health courts and at

least 51 juvenile mental health courts in the nation.

Although there is no official definition of a mental health court, the

description the California Courts use is representative:

Mental health courtsare a type of problem solving courtthat combine

judicial supervision with communitymental health treatment and other

support services in order to reduce criminal activity and improve the qual-

ity of life of participants.

The public policy reasons for developing a mental health court in a

particular jurisdiction may be different from place to place depending on

the specific problems in the criminal justice system, the level of homeless-

ness on the streets, the ability of the jurisdiction to provide treatment, and

the willingness of the community to take on the risk of starting mental

health court. The policy goals set out by the California Courts are a rep-

resentative example of what most mental health courts strive for:

Mental health courts are established to make more effective use of lim-

ited criminal justice and mental health resources, to connect individuals

to treatment and other social services in the community, to improve out-

comes for offenders with mental illness in the criminal justice system, to

respond to public safety concerns, and to address jail overcrowding and

the disproportionate number of people with mental illness in the criminal

justice system.

This chapter explores five of the major policy goals that have emerged over

the past twenty years, and ones that most mental health courts embrace.

Reduce the Number of People with Mental

Illness in Jail

A mental health court should identify people who are in the criminal justice

system because their behavior is a product of untreated mental illness,

and redirect them to quality community-based mental health services.