The Mental Health Court of Santa Clara County, the first court of its kind in California, was established in 1998 to serve mentally ill defendants as well as those with co-occurring disorders, low-functioning, or suffering from traumatic head injuries as well as other disabling diseases, who were failing in or excluded from traditional mental health and other treatment, unserved or underserved, as well as failing on probation, leading to the warehousing of these defendants in jail.