Outcomes
Because mental health courts are such a new phenomenon, there is little in the way of outcome data to determine their impact. Several studies of the Broward County court were released in 2002 and 2003 and found that participation in the court led to a greater connection to services. A 2004 study of the Santa Barbara County, California, Mental Health Court found that participants had reduced criminal activity during their participation. An evaluation of the Brooklyn Mental Health Court documented improvements in several outcome measures, including substance abuse, psychiatric hospitalizations, homelessness and recidivism. In a 2011 meta-analysis of literature on the effectiveness of mental health courts in the USA, it was found that mental health courts reduced recidivism by an overall effect size of -0.54.
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