Mental Health Courts: Helping Put the Pieces Back Together

Waymaker

Courts & Judiciary

Civil Rights Pioneer: Frankie Muse Freeman

By Judge Nannette A. Baker

Throughout her life, Frankie Muse Freeman has worked tirelessly for racial justice and equality. From being instrumental in forming the Citizens Commission on Civil Rights to serving as the first woman on the U.S. commission on Civil Rights, her impact on St. Louis and the nation at large will be felt for generations to come. Even today, at 98, she continues to stay informed of civil rights issues and champion the cause.

Features

Courts & Judiciary

When Research Challenges Policy and Practice: Toward a New Understanding of Mental Health Courts

By Carol Fisler

Although a growing body of research on mental health courts shows consistent and promising results across a number of courts, it also squarely challenges the logic of the mental health court model. What are the implications for the design and operations of mental health courts?

Courts & Judiciary

Why a Federal Mental Health Court? The District of Utah’s Pioneering RISE Court

By Judge Brooke C. Wells

Why create a federal mental health court in Utah in 2005? Learn about the genesis of Utah’s pioneering federal mental health court known as RISE (Reentry Independence through Sustainable Efforts).

Courts & Judiciary

Mental Health Diversion for Criminal Defendants: One Judge’s Experience

By Judge Ann O’Regan Keary

While many judges may be reluctant to preside over a mental health court, Judge Ann O’Regan Keary believes that judges who may be reticent could in fact be excellent and would find working in such a setting enormously satisfying.

Courts & Judiciary

Mental Health Courts: Development, Outcomes, and Future Challenges

By Donald M. Linhorst and P. Ann Dirks-Linhorst

Mental health courts were developed to help address the large number of persons with serious mental illness in the criminal justice system. These courts, overall, have reduced criminal recidivism. However, mental health courts face considerable challenges, chief among them funding for additional courts to make a meaningful difference nationally.

Courts & Judiciary

Driven by Financial Reasons or Passion?

By Judge Elizabeth R. Finn

Learn the personal journey taken by Glendale City Court in Arizona to establish a mental health court. The author discusses Arizona Administrative Office of the Courts’ standards for mental health courts.

Courts & Judiciary

Silver Linings Bench Book

By Judge Patrice Lewis

By helping our defendants implement court-approved, mental health-driven, self-improvement courses, communities could develop their own “Silver Linings Bench Books” of available and accessible mental health and co-occurring services and have a judge supervise compliance on a consolidated criminal docket.

Technology Column

Privacy

The End of Privacy as We Know It?

By Judge Herbert B. Dixon Jr.

Judge Dixon discusses from the perspective of the pessimist, optimist, and pragmatist the results of a Pew Research Center survey that asked experts what the public’s view and expectation of privacy will be in the next 10 years.

Ethics Column

Ethics

Ethics Challenges for a Mental Health Court Judge

By Marla N. Greenstein

In mental health court, the goals are to address the underlying reason that the person is interacting with the judicial system and to reduce the chances that it will recur. In addition to the usual problem-solving court dilemmas, judges in mental health court often need to rely on teams of outside providers.

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Mental Health Courts: Helping Put the Pieces Back Together