In a world where access to mental health services is increasingly diminishing and awareness of mental health conditions is often appallingly low, the court system is becoming the new repository for people with mental and substance-abuse issues.
More than half of all inmates are diagnosed with a mental health issue, and people with mental health conditions are significantly more likely to be homeless and to be arrested. Jail is not an ideal setting for people with mental health issues to recover, and in many cases incarceration may make such issues worse. Moreover, many court systems now recognize the importance of reducing the prison population, and some judges are much more interested in rehabilitation than retribution, particularly for nonviolent crimes.
Accountability courts—drug, alcohol, and mental health courts—are springing up all over the country to meet the needs of people with mental health issues. In many cases, participants get access to much-needed services and a hand up toward a better life. The courts are politically popular because they're less expensive than incarceration, but the quality of accountability courts varies significantly from state to state.
What Are Accountability Courts?
As the name implies, accountability courts aim to hold people accountable for their behavior using measures that go much further than the traditional boundaries of the criminal justice system. Every state with an accountability court establishes its own guidelines, and individual courts often have broad discretion to determine how they operate and what services they provide. Generally, however, people enrolled in mental health courts are required to be enrolled in some sort of treatment program, often administered through the courts at no or low cost.
The courts often exercise significant control over behavior, which gives them the ability to help participants alter bad habits, navigate complex relationships, and give up chemical dependencies. Services commonly offered by accountability courts include:
- Mental health counseling and medication management
- Mandatory compliance with treatment plans
- Family counseling
- Housing and career assistance
- Job training and educational programs
- Group therapy, 12-step programs, and life-skills training
The Potential to Change Lives
When the choice is between a long prison sentence and an accountability court, the accountability court is typically the clear winner. Many people involved in the criminal justice system got there because of poor coping skills, a history of mental conditions, substance abuse, low family support, or poverty. Accountability courts are, in the eyes of many mental health professionals, the answer to the systemic nature of criminal behavior.
Good courts aim to attack the problem from all sides by providing social services and meaningful training. Participants in some programs may spend most of each day in classes and therapy sessions, and upon completion of the program, often have a host of new skills. Moreover, for those who complete the program, access to an accountability court meant staying out of prison—a powerful incentive in itself that often prevents mental health issues from getting worse.
Ethical Dilemmas
Accountability courts commingle mental health treatment with the criminal justice system, which can create some problems. A therapist might be counseling a participant one day and referring him or her for sentencing the next. Many courts struggle with how to manage these ethical dilemmas, and not all programs are effective. While some accountability courts might be run by numerous mental health professionals and case managers, others might be run by a single parole officer with little experience helping people with mental health issues. Many people in the criminal justice system have more than one diagnosis, which can make this population particularly challenging to treat.
There have also been some instances of abuse of discretion, particularly on the legal side of accountability courts. Judges in accountability courts typically develop relationships with participants, and may hold regular court sessions with participants once a week or more. They may have much more discretion than traditional judges, and there are often few checks on their power. In Brunswick, Georgia, a drug court judge was removed after her abuses of power came to light. The judge had held drug court participants in jail for years for petty crimes, had sentenced people based on personal feelings and relationships, and had directly interfered with the treatment processes in drug court. While drug courts offer services that have the potential to change lives, they also require the same oversight as the rest of the court system, and when this oversight goes away, abuses may occur.
References:
- Accountability courts. (n.d.). Georgia Administrative Office of the Courts. Retrieved from http://www.georgiacourts.org/index.php/aoc/court-services/accountability-courts
- An alternative to incarceration. (n.d.). NAMI. Retrieved from http://www.nami.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Top_Story/An_Alternative_to_Incarceration.htm
- Jones, W. (2012, September 28). Investigation of former Judge Amanda Williams not done, special prosecutor says. The Florida Times-Union. Retrieved from http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2012-09-28/story/investigation-former-judge-amanda-williams-not-done-special-prosecutor
- Mental health courts. (n.d.). California Courts. Retrieved from http://www.courts.ca.gov/5982.htm
- Mental health court. (n.d.). Municipal Court of Seattle. Retrieved from http://www.seattle.gov/courts/comjust/mh.htm
- What are drug courts? (n.d.). NADCP Home. Retrieved from http://www.nadcp.org/learn/what-are-drug-courts
