Success of Mental Health Court Spotlighted
The Eighth Judicial District’s Mental Health Court gets some positive attention in the Sun’s article A Chance At a Real Life, written by Brian Eckhouse. Kudos to Senior Judge John McGroarty, who helped create the program
The Mental Health Court takes a therapeutic, rather than punitive, approach toward the mentally ill who become enmeshed in the criminal court system. Many participants benefit from assistance in maintaining medication for the mental illness, learning to stop self-medicating with illicit substances. They are offered life-management training and, as they progress, vocational rehabilitation.
A nice, symbolic touch mentioned in the article is the practice of pushing the plaintiff/defense tables together, so the parties sit together as a team. Aside from the success of the program for participants, a real advantage of the program is its tax-saving capability. Jailing people is expensive. The Mental Health Court spends about $13,000 per participant per year – but jailing them would cost $36,000.
Let’s hope the success of this and similar program will encourage efforts to employ therapeutic, rather than punitive, tactics to deal with substance abuse issues in general, instead of maintaining the ruinously expensive “War on Drugs.”
