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.
Other Pathways and Strategies to Treatment and Recovery Courts should work with state agency partners and community-based providers to create and maintain alternative and sustainable pathways to evidence-based treatment and recovery support. Evidence-based practices include embedding recovery support navigators, court based access to telehealth services, and individual calendaring.
Task Force Recommendations Implementation - Resources and News
SJI Spotlight: Wyoming Judicial Branch Mental Health Diversion Project Behavioral health diversion is built on a guiding hypothesis: Diverting nonviolent individuals with serious mental illness away from the criminal justice system and into community-based treatment and support services will transform lives, reduce recidivism, generate cost savings, and ease the burden on jails, courts, and state hospitals. This hypothesis has been proven in well-resourced urban centers like Miami. The Wyoming Judicial Branch is now testing whether it holds true in a rural, under-resourced jurisdiction like Wyoming.
Research and Resources
The Projected Costs and Economic Impact of Mental Health Inequities in the United States Mental health inequities may not only harm individuals but also hinder economic prosperity.1 To gain a broader understanding of the costs associated with mental health inequities in the United States, the Deloitte Health Equity Institute and the School of Global Health at Meharry Medical College conducted an equity-focused quantitative analysis. The study examined various types of expenditures related to mental health inequities that have not been explored in detail in other literature, ranging from chronic physical ailments like diabetes and hypertension to productivity-related losses stemming from absenteeism and unemployment. If left unaddressed, mental health inequities could lead to about US$14 trillion in excess costs between now and 2040.
Understanding Contingency Management: A Foundational Webinar for Homeless Service Providers This webinar will provide attendees with a foundational understanding of contingency management and how it works to support individuals experiencing homelessness with substance use or co-occurring disorders. Attendees will hear from two programs about how they use contingency management—what has worked, what has been challenging, and how other programs might develop contingency management programs of their own.
Identifying and Supporting Behavioral Health Needs in Encampments: Tips for Nonclinical Staff Outreach teams observe a wide range of behavioral health conditions. This guide provides tips for nonclinical staff when engaging with individuals living in encampment settings to support their behavioral health needs.
NACO Panel: People in Crisis Need Support, Not Handcuffs Counties can better serve people experiencing a behavioral health crisis by engaging behavioral health specialists instead of law enforcement, experts told county officials at a recent meeting held at NACo headquarters. County leaders shared local behavioral health crisis challenges and solutions at play in their communities, at a Jan. 30 intergovernmental roundtable. Engaging behavioral health specialists instead of law enforcement and diverting people from the justice system to treatment and long-term support were identified as ways counties can better serve people experiencing a behavioral health crisis. Highlighted programs included Dallas County’s Rapid Integrated Group Healthcare Team, Pima County’s mental health crisis line, and ending competency evaluation orders in Miami-Dade County.
Entangled: How People With Serious Mental Illness Get Caught in Misdemeanor Systems People with serious mental illness (SMI) are prominently and unjustly overrepresented in the criminal legal system. More than one third—and in some studies more than two thirds—of those with SMI have a lifetime history of arrest. For the first time, a single volume takes a deep dive into the common behaviors, contexts, and decisions that lead to misdemeanor arrests. Contributors representing the fields of anthropology, social work, criminology, and psychiatry draw on data from a mixed-method, multisite study (Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia) to examine how people with SMI become entangled in the criminal legal system and how failure to resolve underlying issues—such as underfunded social and mental health service systems and the shortage of affordable housing—plays a role.
JPLI Newsletter Progress toward goal to train 10,000 judges; Chief Judge Evelyn Dolchok highlighted; SAMHSA’s Serious Mental Illness Training and Technical Assistance Center launches; and more.
Catalyst: Winter 2025 The Winter 2025 issue of the digital newsletter Catalyst highlights a new SMI Spotlight podcast in collaboration with Dr. Xavier Amador as well as advocacy presentations that brought TAC’s crucial messaging to inform judicial and mental health policies in states like Texas and Washington. TAC is also proud to launch SMI Thought Leaders, a periodic guest blog written by leading voices from their multidisciplinary field.
In the News
Governor Signs Landmark Package of Bills Reforming Competency, Banning Glock Switches in NM New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a landmark package of three public safety and behavioral health bills at the governor's office in Santa Fe Thursday, Feb. 27. Of the components of HB 8, Lujan Grisham said competency was the most important to her. Thousands of cases have been dismissed in courts because of competency, she said. “By and large, those individuals are not in treatment, are not in programs. They’re living on the streets or in our neighborhoods and communities, reoffending—many of them before the same judge,” Lujan Grisham said. “Today, we are celebrating that that will no longer be the case.” “The enactment of Senate Bill 3 illustrates how the three branches of state government—legislative, executive and judicial—can work together to help New Mexico move forward,” Supreme Court Chief Justice David K. Thomson said in a statement on the enactment of Senate Bill 3. The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) will work quickly and diligently to coordinate the development of regional plans for providing behavioral health services to all areas of New Mexico as required by SB3.
Pilot Project Started for Court Mental Health Proceedings to Provide More Clarity, and Support for Respondents and Their Families Chief Judge Timothy C. Evans announced a pilot project that will combine cases involving mental health treatment and guardianship before a single judge, thus providing more clarity and support for respondents and their families. The pilot project, which starts February 20, will address a long-time source of frustration for respondents who are ordered to outpatient treatment due to mental health problems and who are disabled on some level and in need of guardianship, according to the Hon. Susan Kennedy Sullivan, who along with the Hon. Mary S. Trew will be handling the new court calendar. Currently, those issues are handled by separate court divisions causing confusion and extra stress for respondents and their families, Kennedy Sullivan said. “The goal is to finally merge these two arenas, because they should be merged for the benefit of respondents with certain mental health issues and legal matters in two court divisions,” said Judge Kennedy Sullivan.
NC Defendants With Mental Illness Wait Months in Jail for Court-Ordered Treatment An increasing number of criminal defendants are being declared incapable to proceed in North Carolina and wait an average of 173 days—nearly six months—before being admitted to one of three state psychiatric hospitals for capacity restoration treatment, according to the NC Department of Health and Human Services.
Missouri Lawmakers Raise Concerns About Long Waits in Jail for Court-Ordered Mental Health Care Leaders of Missouri’s public defender system urged lawmakers on Monday to take action to reduce the growing number of people languishing in jails across the state who are in need of mental health treatment. As of last month, 418 people were in Missouri jails waiting to be transferred to a state mental health bed, up from around 300 at this time last year. The average wait time was 14 months, with some held longer than the maximum sentence for the crime for which they were charged.
As Competency Issues Bog Down Criminal Cases, New Hampshire Legislators Seek Solutions New Hampshire’s low rate of restoration of competency for criminal defendants, which is nearly half the national average, has caught the attention of victims’ families and legislators. Decisions on competency are based on mental health evaluations and whether defendants understand the legal system and are able to participate in their defense. The national average rate for restoration is 81%. In contrast, New Hampshire only had 44% of those ordered into competency restoration able to return to court in 2019, which is the latest data available, according to a legislative report.
Wellbeing
Colorado’s Chief Justice Participates in Mental Health Discussion at CU Law Chief Justice Monica M. Márquez spoke about mental health and wellness in the legal profession on Wednesday, stressing the importance of seeking help starting in law school. “Thirty years ago when I went to law school, none of that existed. We weren’t having these conversations,” she said at the University of Colorado’s law school in Boulder. “I am not, and have not been, sort of a lifelong champion of wellbeing. But I’ve become a convert over the years.”
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