Mental Health Court
Mental Health Court
Mental Health Court
2013
By: Elizabeth Gavin
Professor Contino Class: Corrections One
9/17/2013
2013
By: Elizabeth Gavin
Professor Contino Class: Corrections One
9/17/2013
Mental health courts are a resource given to prisoners who would normally be put in prison if they had not decided to join this special program. Mental health court is a court run program by the district attorney’s office in some counties. This program is based off of traditional court room structure but is also paired with community services. Mental health courts solve a lot of different problems within our criminal justice system. The first problem it solves is the systematic problem that we have with putting seriously mentally ill offenders in prison instead of putting them in a mental hospital or going through a mental health court program to help them deal with their illness. This gives the offenders the ability to learn how to handle their illness and stay on track to getting their life back together (Thompson, M., Osher, F., & Tomasini-Joshi, D. ,2008). People who work in the mental health court systems take the time out of their day to really take a critical look at the issues that offenders with mental illnesses face in the criminal justice system. They help craft new ways to deal with these offenders for example with some people you need a more hands on approach in their treatment program and a soft guiding hand, but with other individuals you need to have a firmer no nonsense approach to make them realize that this is not a game but rather an opportunity to get their life back together. The mental health court really gives offenders the ability to work on major mental illnesses while working on taking care of legal issues. This is a very important step in the criminal justice system, because many individuals only committed these crimes due to the fact that they were off their medication
Mental Health Court
2013
By: Elizabeth Gavin
Professor Contino Class: Corrections One
9/17/2013
2013
By: Elizabeth Gavin
Professor Contino Class: Corrections One
9/17/2013
Mental health courts are a resource given to prisoners who would normally be put in prison if they had not decided to join this special program. Mental health court is a court run program by the district attorney’s office in some counties. This program is based off of traditional court room structure but is also paired with community services. Mental health courts solve a lot of different problems within our criminal justice system. The first problem it solves is the systematic problem that we have with putting seriously mentally ill offenders in prison instead of putting them in a mental hospital or going through a mental health court program to help them deal with their illness. This gives the offenders the ability to learn how to handle their illness and stay on track to getting their life back together (Thompson, M., Osher, F., & Tomasini-Joshi, D. ,2008). People who work in the mental health court systems take the time out of their day to really take a critical look at the issues that offenders with mental illnesses face in the criminal justice system. They help craft new ways to deal with these offenders for example with some people you need a more hands on approach in their treatment program and a soft guiding hand, but with other individuals you need to have a firmer no nonsense approach to make them realize that this is not a game but rather an opportunity to get their life back together. The mental health court really gives offenders the ability to work on major mental illnesses while working on taking care of legal issues. This is a very important step in the criminal justice system, because many individuals only committed these crimes due to the fact that they were off their medication
References: Mental health courts a primer for policy makers and practitioners. (2008). The Proliferation of Mental Health Courts. Center for Court Innovation. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Sept. 2013 Thompson, M., Osher, F., & Tomasini-Joshi, D. (2008).Improving responses to people with mental illnesses: The essential elements of a mental health court. What have we learned from evaluations of mental health courts?. (N.d.). York county mental health court manual . (May, 2005).