Mental Health Courts
Background Mental health courts are a specialty court that provides specific services and treatment to defendants dealing with mental illness. In most jurisdictions, mental health courts are an alternative to the traditional court system, in which they emphasize a problem-solving model and connect defendants to a variety of rehabilitative services and support networks, as opposed to more punitive based sanctions such as incarceration in jail or prison. While each mental health court has different participant requirements and available services, shared goals are typically to: ● Support participants successful return to society and reduce recidivism (re-offending); ● Increase public safety; ● Improve the participant’s quality of life. Mental health courts have become increasingly popular in recent years with reform advocates and mental health rights groups. Required Viewing A Rare Look Inside a Mental Health Court by Blue Forest Films https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvufZsC7Yas Links to an external site. Discussion Board Prompt Following viewing this weeks readings, your task is to reflect on the use of mental health courts. Using the knowledge gained from this weeks content, answer the following questions in the outlined 2 paragraph format (EACH paragraph should be 5-9 sentences) below. Paragraph One: Is it important for participation in mental health court to be voluntary on the part of the offender, or should the criminal justice system be able to divert a case to mental health court on the offender’s behalf? What are some of the unintended negative consequences of having one’s case diverted through mental health court? For instance, could having a “mental health/mental illness” note on one’s record be potentially harmful and in what ways? What other negative effects might result? Paragraph Two: Clearly, a serious mental disorder such as schizophrenia would justify the specialized 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? What about anxiety, trauma, or depression? Last, should the victim of the crime (if there is one) have input into the decision to divert a case to mental health court? Why or why not? Additional Requirements This section will require critical thinking and analysis. This post should not include only surface level analysis. Further, the purpose of this post is to amicably discuss mental health courts. The goal of this post is NOT to promote abstract attacks on certain racial, ethnic, or political groups or tout non-credible theses or statistics about mental health and crime. As this is a justice course, you will need to dig deep regarding the topics of the prompt, as they relate to diversity and crime. While posts are solely based on your own perceptions, they should be coherent and address the prompt (e.g., you will lose points for going off on tangents on unrelated topics). Please see the Discussion Board Grading Rubric for more details on grading standards for posts.
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