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Court News - 4/30/2001 - Mental Health Court

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04/30/01

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SUBJECT: Time for a change:

The Mental Health Court of the County of Santa Clara

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The Superior Court, County of Santa Clara, announces the proven success of its
Mental Health Court. The Mental Health Court program began as a pilot in 1998,
and became a permanent specialized calendar in January 1999. As of January 1,
2001, 56 participants had successfully completed the program. There are
currently 211 active participants.

The vision of the Santa Clara County Superior Court Mental Health Court is to

Health System,
bring together the Court, the Criminal Justice System, thetoMental
reach
defendants
with
the Drug and Alcohol System, and community treatment
co-occurring disorders that
pending criminal cases who are mentally ill, often withrelease
them from jail into
relate to mental illness and substance abuse, and to
community treatment consistent with public safety.

The Mental Health Court accepts referrals of mentally ill defendants directly from

are
the jail, as well as from other judges and county agencies. Defendants
or
post
accepted regardless of whether they are referred pre-conviction
conviction. The entire focus of the court is treatment and successful re-entry into
the community. In order to graduate, each participant must complete at least one

year in the treatment program and maintain medication and treatment compliance
as well as sobriety.

The courtroom ?team? includes the Judge, District Attorney, Public Defender, and
Mental Health Caseworkers. The program has no outside funding and is
all of the
supported entirely by the dedication of existing resources from
and
Drug Services,
stakeholders (Court, Mental Health, Department of Alcohol

Probation, Department of Corrections, Sheriff), and general funds provided by the

County Board of Supervisors.

Our measure of success relates to client success in community treatment

remain in custody and
resulting in a decrease in the number of days these clients
The
impetus behind the
a corresponding reduction in the costs of incarceration.
being
held in jail for
program was the large numbers of mentally ill defendantsinto jail numerous
times at
lengthy periods of time or being rearrested and booked
great human cost as well as public expense.

During the 2 years prior to entry into the Mental Health Court, this group of 56
graduates was held in custody for a total of 19,040 days, at a cost of
clients from jail custody
approximately $1,252,832. The effect of moving these 56
successful
completion of
into community treatment over a one-year period (with
this mental health program), the actual jail days saved (not having to be served)
were 6,013, at a cost savings of approximately $395,655 to the County of Santa
Clara. There were no new arrests for these graduates.

http://www.sccsuperiorcourt.org/news/news_mentalhlth.htm

9/18/2006