Defining A Mental Health Court
Mental health courts vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but most share a number of characteristics. The Council of State Governments Justice Center has defined the “essential elements” of mental health courts. The Justice Center, in a publication detailing the essential elements, notes that the majority of mental health courts share the following characteristics:
- A specialized court docket, which employs a problem-solving approach to court processing in lieu of more traditional court procedures for certain defendants with mental illnesses;
- Judicially supervised, community-based treatment plans for each defendant participating in the court, which a team of court staff and mental health professionals design and implement;
- Regular status hearings at which treatment plans and other conditions are periodically reviewed for appropriateness, incentives are offered to reward adherence to court conditions, and sanctions are imposed on participants who do not adhere to the conditions of participation;
- Criteria defining a participant’s completion of (sometimes called graduation from) the program.
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