Implementation of the National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts' Response to Mental Illness Report and Recommendations
The Task Force made a number of important findings with corresponding recommendations supported by over 100 resources for courts and our partner stakeholders. Each Behavioral Health Alerts revisits an original Task Force resource or a new resource that supports a Task Force recommendation.
Effective Court Caseflow Management Courts must control case progress and court events through judicial leadership and control of their dockets. Courts should be accountable and hold attorneys and community providers accountable in ensuring that the court process meets the specific needs of the individual. Individuals with behavioral health needs are best served through availability of multiple pathways to treatment and recovery.
Task Force Recommendations Implementation - Resources and News
Supreme Court Justice Works to Expand Options for Defendants With Mental Illness Lawmakers are working to change the way New Mexico's courts treat people who have severe mental illness, including those deemed incompetent to stand trial.House Bill 8, which passed the House over the weekend, includes legislation which would expand the circumstances in which people found dangerous could be put in a residential facility against their will. It would also increase options for treatment in the community for defendants with mental illness.Supreme Court Justice Briana Zamora has worked on the issue, including pilot diversion programs to get people help in the community. Zamora spoke to KUNM about the work, starting with the 10 years she spent as a trial court judge.
JPLI Seeks Advisory Committee Members The Judges and Psychiatrists Leadership Initiative (JPLI) is excited to launch a new advisory group to guide efforts in decriminalizing mental illness and improving responses to people with behavioralhealth needs in the criminal justice system. Join us in advancing our mission to train 10,000 judges by 2030 and make a lasting impact at the intersection of behavioral health and justice. JPLI’s partner organizations—the American Psychiatric Association Foundation, The Council of State Governments Justice Center, and the National Center for State Courts—and co-chairs have been the backbone of this initiative, providing subject matter expertise, guidance, and leadership since JPLI’s inception in 2011. Now, JPLI is seeking new and fresh voices to shape the future and expand our collective impact by forming this advisory group. We seek judges, psychiatrists, peer support specialists, individuals with lived experience, and other subject matter experts to contribute to JPLI’s trainings, resources, and strategic direction.
Exposing the Structural Issues of the Mental Health System The social determinants of health are defined by the World Health Organization as the conditions in which people are “born, grow, work, live, and age.” These include income inequality, food insecurity, discrimination, adverse childhood experiences and more. Research from a 2021 National Center for State Courts report about mental health found that young people from low-income household environments were twice as likely to experience anxiety and depression. Similarly, people in socially marginalized communities based on their race, gender and more experience higher rates of mental illness than their non-marginalized counterparts.
Research and Resources
New NRI State Profiles Report: Use of Peer Specialists in State BH Service Settings 2023 Since Georgia’s landmark initiative, every responding state is now using Peer Support Specialists in their behavioral health system and 41 states (93 percent) now have Medicaid reimbursement for Peer Support services. This report focuses on the use of Peer Specialists in state behavioral health settings, including Medicaid and other funding, required background checks, credentialling, peer workforce shortages, and state initiatives to recruit and retain peer specialists.
SAMHSA Releases National Guidance for Substance Use Disorder Care SAMHSA’s new National Guidance on Essential Specialty Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Care articulates a core or essential set of services for adults with SUD that should be available at any specialty SUD treatment facility in the United States.
SAMHSA Releases Publications Supporting Recovery SAMHSA has released publications designed to address unique recovery needs in rural communities; empower individuals navigating behavioral health services; and expand the adoption of recovery-oriented services and supports in state, local, and community behavioral health settings.
Jailing the Homeless: New Data Shed Light on Unhoused People in Local Jails In this briefing, we present what we know about unhoused people who are booked into jails using the best available dataset collected from jail rosters by the Jail Data Initiative (JDI). We find that people booked into jail who were marked as unhoused at intake are held longer than average, while being handed some of the lowest-level charges like trespassing or petty theft.
Language Matters in Mental Health Neither “person-first” or “identity-first” is always right or always wrong. Language is complicated and always changing. Whether a term is acceptable or not depends on your audience, whose experience you are trying to capture, and a person’s own preference. Effective communication starts with respect. We better promote mental health when we show respect for people from different cultures, backgrounds, or life experiences. When we practice inclusion, we improve our communication. Once you develop greater awareness, knowledge, and skills about the culture of mental health, you may be surprised at how often hurtful language and labels are used in everyday conversation.
Through Smoke and Mirrors: Excluding Malingering Expert Testimony Under the Daubert Standard Malingering expert testimony provides a case study on how not to apply the Daubert Standard. Such testimony has been admitted in civil cases to prove that plaintiffs were malingering, or lying about, their neurocognitive dysfunction, psychiatric disability, or chronic pain. In criminal cases, the prosecution uses malingering expert testimony to defeat defendants’ defenses of incompetence, insanity, or intellectual disability. And despite its lack of scientific validity, trial courts have generally admitted malingering expert testimony under the Daubert Standard. A review of the caselaw shows that trial courts so far appear to have accepted, without questioning, that forensic neuropsychologists are the relevant scientific community when evaluating admissibility of malingering expert testimony. When focused on the proper relevant scientific community, however, it becomes apparent why malingering expert testimony cannot pass muster under Daubert.
Bias Baked In: How Antisocial Personality Disorder Diagnoses Trigger Legal Failure In Part I, the Note provides background regarding the ASPD diagnosis, starting with a discussion of the diagnosis qua diagnosis and then tracing how the history and development of the diagnosis have shaped negative clinical perceptions of ASPD. The lengthy discussion of clinical considerations in this Part is necessary to understand what goes unexamined by the legal system in later examples of the legal use of the diagnosis. Part II examines how clinical stigma infects the use of ASPD diagnoses in a legal context, where the adversarial process magnifies bias. Part III focuses on the role of the ASPD diagnosis in the imposition of the death penalty to demonstrate how dangerous the current legal regime really is. Part IV proposes humble, preliminary methods for addressing the issues the Note has raised.
Mental Health Courts: Is There Any Hope for Mental Illness in an Outdated Criminal Justice System? This article aims to provide the reader with an understanding of the evolving field of mental health courts and provide state legislatures foundational knowledge for creating and implementing more fair and equitable methods of prosecution that do not stigmatize an already vulnerable group of individuals, those impacted by mental illness. This article will take a closer look into the creation of mental health courts, the procedural posture of mental health courts, and the efficacy of mental health courts across the country.
A Half Century of Criminalizing Serious Mental Illness: Observations and Considerations This article describes the difficulties of working with people with serious mental illnesses (PSMI) at every stage of the criminal justice process—from arrest to post-incarceration release from prison. The needs of PSMI for mental health and social services are complex and require different case management plans and strategies at various points in the process.
Tomorrow Is a Mystery: Implementing Georgia's Psychiatric Advance Directive Act This Note analyzes the implementation of Georgia’s Psychiatric Advance Directive Act (PAD Act), adopted in 2022. First, this Note provides an explanation and comparison of medical advance directives and psychiatric advance directives. Next, through a comparative analysis of legal challenges encountered in states that have already implemented PAD statutes, this Note anticipates how similar issues might emerge under Georgia’s PAD Act. This analysis explores hurdles related to the execution, enforceability, and judicial interpretation of PADs using cases from other states to inform how Georgia courts might navigate these questions. Finally, this Note offers recommendations for clarifying the statutory language of Georgia’s PAD Act so the Act will provide help to those who experience mental health conditions.
Building Trust and Buy-In With Multi-Disciplinary Deflection Teams Deflection involves collaboration with many programs facilitated by multidisciplinary, co-responder teams of behavioral health practitioners and police officers who come from different professional cultures but share common goals. The Northeast Co-Responder program in Northeast Johnson County, Kansas, spans seven cities and involves five police departments. Building strong rapport among co-responders and securing officer buy-in from these departments is vital. This webinar will equip clinicians and officers on multidisciplinary deflection teams with tools and strategies for building trusting relationships, navigating their distinct cultures, and enhancing officer buy-in and program sustainability and effectiveness.
Judiciary Training on Substance Use All Rise, in collaboration with the National Judicial College, offers no-cost training opportunities on substance use tailored specifically for non-treatment court judges. These training courses focus on the impact of substance use disorders and evidence-based responses proven to work with individuals involved in the justice system. This curriculum translates best practices into practical strategies for judges who may encounter individuals with substance use disorders in judicial settings other than treatment courts. Our expert faculty and judicial trainers ensure that the content is engaging, relevant, and easy to apply in real-world settings.
Justice Department Announces $29 Million to Support Justice and Mental Health Programs Through OJP’s Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program is providing $18.6 million to support innovative cross-system collaboration for individuals with mental illnesses or co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders who come into contact with the justice system. The program funds collaborative projects between criminal justice and mental health partners to plan, implement or expand a justice and mental health program.
Expanding First Response Commission Earlier this month, CSG launched the second iteration of the Expanding First Response Commission, a national group of bipartisan elected officials, emergency response leaders, academics, practitioners, and community advocates. The new commission looks to build on previous efforts and will focus their guidance on what states can do to support the expansion and sustainability of community crisis response programs.
CSG Justice Briefing Michigan implements juvenile justice reforms; Nebraska highlights reentry progress; Missouri's goals for reentry career services; and more.
In the News
Eliminating the ACA Medicaid Expansion Match Could Reduce Total Medicaid Spending by Up To $1.9 Trillion Over 10 Years and End Coverage for 20 Million People The impacts would be felt in both blue and red states and could effectively reverse and end the Medicaid expansion in most or all states that have adopted it. The analysis shows state-by-state estimates for two scenarios if Congress eliminates the ACA provision under which the federal government picks up 90% of the cost of covering the Medicaid expansion population and instead reimburses states at their traditional match rate, which ranges from 50% to 77%.
This Kansas City ‘Wellness Court’ Takes a New Approach to Mental Health, Substance Use A new Wellness Court in Kansas City, Missouri, is aiming to take a more comprehensive approach to cases involving substance use and mental illness. The new specialty court is designed to merge the city’s separate mental health and drug courts, considering offenses alongside resources, treatment, and a pathway out of the legal system.
Hochul’s Humane Move to Put the Seriously Mentally Ill in Hospitals Hochul’s amendments would expand the criteria for involuntary commitment. New York’s mental-hygiene law currently lets hospitals retain mentally ill individuals whom clinicians deem an immediate danger to themselves or others. The governor reasonably wants to lower that standard, allowing for commitment when individuals are at “a substantial risk of physical harm” due to their “inability or refusal, as a result of their mental illness, to provide for their own essential needs.” This would better enable intervention before individuals decompensate to the point of homicidal or suicidal behavior.
People Are Getting Arrested Under California’s New Tough-on-Crime Law. Some Counties Aren’t Ready It’s been three months since California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 36, a new law that pledged to provide “mass treatment” for those facing certain drug charges. But since the law took effect on Dec. 18, some counties are scrambling to fulfill that promise. Now, prosecutors have the ability to charge people convicted of various third-time drug offenses with a so-called treatment-mandated felony, which would direct them to substance use disorder or mental health treatment in lieu of up to three years in jail or prison. But as some counties struggle to implement the mandate without new funding or, according to people involved in enforcing the law, sufficient resources, more and more people are being charged without a clear path to the treatment the law was supposed to offer.
Judge Establishing New Civil Assisted Outpatient Treatment Court The program’s objectives are to provide an alternative local mental illness treatment option with the goals of decreasing the number of repeated interactions those suffering from mental health illness have at our local medical facilities and with law enforcement, and to reduce the current strain on inpatient services, Judge Rohde said. “Our goal is to get people the help they need before their crisis results in them committing a crime, while at the same time maximizing the efficiency of our community’s emergency resources, all of which will result in us having a safer community,” he said.
Wellbeing
Promoting Wellness in the Workplace A SAMHSA guidance document from the Wellness in the Workplace Summit that convened both federal and non-federal partners to review innovative approaches for identifying and creating employment opportunities for people in or seeking recovery from substance use and/or mental health conditions. The issue brief is intended for use as a guide by businesses and state and local governments to implement the identified best practices of recovery ready workplaces and wellness initiatives and includes information on what is a recovery ready workplace, where to start, case examples, and additional resources to learn more.
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