Mental health courts
This week, you learned about mental health courts. As this is a relatively new innovation, their effectiveness is still being studied. A number of interesting questions have arisen from this development, including those which comprise this week’s discussion assignment:
- Is it important for participation in a mental health court to be voluntary on the part of the offender, or should the prosecutor be able to direct a case to mental health court?
- What are some of the unintended negative consequences of having one’s case diverted through a mental health court as opposed to normal processing in criminal court? For instance, it might be possible that having a “mental health” issue on record could prevent the offender from applying for certain jobs in the future. What other negative effects might result?
- Clearly, a serious mental disorder such as schizophrenia would justify the special treatment accorded by mental health courts and treatment programs. What other conditions should be included in this protocol? For instance, should drug addiction be considered a “mental illness” for the purposes of determining whether to divert a criminal case to mental health court?
- Last, is it fair to the victim of the crime to have the case diverted away from traditional trial and punishment? Should the victim have input into the decision to divert a case?
Answer preview
In recent decades, mental health courts have become popular within the United States due to the spiraling number of persons with mental health concerns that the justice system has to deal with. The shift to mental health courts has made it possible for the justice system to shift from criminal processing and focus more on therapeutic healing. For a person to be admitted to a mental health court, several complicated and variable factors are considered (Wolff et al., 2011). Essentially, for an individual to qualify as a candidate for a mental health court, they should be mentally ill which can or cannot be persistent, chronic or serious. The consideration implies that individuals who qualify are without a doubt mentally…
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