Mental Health Court Programs in Rural and Nonaffluent Jurisdictions

Abstract

Due to the shift in emphasis from institutional care to community-based treatment for mentally ill patients, many end up in marginal lifestyle situations probably due to lack of funds, strained family and other supports, and no case management. Many do not consistently take their prescriptions or “self-medicate” with alcohol or street drugs. When off their prescription therapy, many of these patients act out. They are arrested, placed in jail, and enter the criminal justice system. Due to their unresolved mental health issues, they get caught in a cyclical pattern of arrests. Our jails have become de facto mental health treatment centers. These cases are crowding court dockets and are filling the jails and state hospitals at taxpayers' expense. The jails should not be community mental health centers. Mental health court programs are responding to these issues. Success is measured by decreased arrests and mental hospital stays, and the overall well-being of such patients.