Purposes Of Specialty Courts

Specialty courts are problem solving court systems that focus on treatment and rehabilitation as opposed to straight jail or prison time. The focus is on treating the underlying issues that led the defendants to court in the first place. The types of specialty courts in Massachusetts vary from mental health, veteran’s treatment, firearm session, and drug courts.
Normally when suspects are arrested and they are arraigned in regular district courts like everyone else. But over time courts have been restructured with the idea of rehabilitating offenders, giving them treatment options as opposed to simple jail time. Defendants may qualify to have their cases heard in specialty courts if the reasons that bought them to court are a good match for
the type of courts the case could be heard in; for instance, if a person is arrested for drug possession for personal use or small scale distribution, the defendant is arraigned in the drug courts.
Drug courts are designed to address the reasons defendants most likely engaged in the criminal behavior they stand accused of.
Usually the underlying issues are mental illness or drug and alcohol addiction. Massachusetts being as progressive as it is even has drug court for juveniles. This is fantastic for many reasons. Most adults would be quick to dismiss juveniles as delinquent, misguided youth who will always be resigned to a life of crime. But fortunately there are some who saw pass this and also knew that this was not true for every young person who engaged in drug use. Courts try to circumvent the path these young people are on by addressing underlying issues that moved them to be in the possession of drugs.
One of the main purposes of drug court is supervised probation, which is mandatory part of the juvenile’s treatment. Probation officers are trained to conduct clinical assessments, to monitor the treatment of the juvenile and conduct drug testing. As expected, other treatment and conditions apply. The only real difference between a juvenile drug court and the adult drug court is
age.
Another specialty court is homeless court.
This is a relatively new court in Massachusetts that was started in 2010. Because so many homeless people tend to commit crimes in order to support themselves, it makes sense specialty courts with a focus on the homeless were created. This court helps them find housing and get mental health treatment if mental health treatment is necessary. This court works in conjunction with the Lemuel Shattuck hospital, a mental health facility, and the pine street inn which focuses primarily on homelessness. The goal is to remove barriers to housing, to help defendants find permanent housing, employment training, and certain other government benefits; but only after the defendant successfully finishes necessary drug abuse and addiction counseling prescribed for them. After successful completion of court issued and probation managed treatment, defendants can then have removed, default warrants for non-violent offenses.
There is a slight caveat to mental health courts; defendants must be competent to stand trial. This means the accused can assist in his or her defense, and comprehend the consequences of the proceedings against them. The defendant’s case must also be over either by a guilty plea or admission o sufficient fact that they agree they’d be found guilty if there case went to trial, additionally they must be on
probation.
Probation is mandatory to be eligible for this particular court if the defendant has a serious mental illness and or a secondary issue like drug or alcohol abuse. The purpose of the court is to give treatments in lieu of jail time. Case management of the individual is necessary and done through available community service programs and the participants must be active engaged in these programs for a minimum of three months to graduate. Like the other specialty courts, mental health court participants are monitored by the judges, probation officers and clinicians trained in each particular issue.
Changing courts to include treatment is a great idea because the potential to help defendants steer clear of recidivism is potentially likely. When people feel encouraged and cared about they tend to make better choices and others want to join in and help the theory become more accessible and practical. When defendants are given a clean slated after successful completion of their individualized programs they have better work opportunities and have more access to benefits that would have been closed off to them. The courts are well defined and seemingly well executed, they focus on removing the traditional adversarial system that is customary to regular courts, intervention regarding drugs and alcohol, counseling, therapy, and regular court sessions with a judge, probation and other necessary people to the participant’s treatment plan.