NWA editorial: A better form of justice

Mental health court a promising approach

Pretend for just a moment: Let's say cancer isn't a crime, but it tends to aggravate one's tendency to step outside the bounds of legal behaviors.

Or why not heart disease? Or diabetes?

One step further, let's say you been diagnosed with one of those maladies and also arrested for having committed one of those nonviolent crimes.

What kind of court would you rather hear your case? A court in which a prosecutor aggressively tries to prove guilt, your attorney does his best to dismantle the prosecutor's allegations, a judge dispassionately devotes herself to ensuring all the rules are followed, and a jury has a basic task of determining guilt or innocence. Guilty? Off to the slammer.

What’s the point?

Treating people with mental illness is much better than adjudicating them like any other person accused of a crime. Sebastian County is setting a fine example.

Or would you prefer a courtroom filled with people fully cognizant of the crime, but who recognize the underlying reason it likely was committed arose from the disease? People who have connections to experts who can help, such as physicians who can provide treatment or counselors who can better help the accused cope with the impact the disease has on judgment?

If cancer or heart disease or diabetes were to blame for such behaviors, our society would have long ago come to terms with the injustice committed when someone in that situation faced incarceration instead of treatment. We've been slower -- much too slow -- to recognize behaviors affected by mental illness deserve the same kind of measured justice that seeks long-term solutions over simple warehousing of law-breakers.

In Sebastian County, the Quorum Court recently approved a resolution to seek federal funds to establish a mental health court, a kind of judicial intervention program pursued in more than 150 courts throughout the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

If approved for the $750,000, three-year grant, Sebastian County would set up a court-based program that adjudicates criminal cases by treating the accused more like a client or patient. The goals of such programs include connecting those with mental health challenges to support services that can help with employment, medical treatment, housing and a host of other issues that, when ignored, can contributed to criminal violations.

Each case remains a part of the judicial process, with the court creating opportunities for the mentally ill or challenged to succeed, with the potential dismissal of charges or reduction of sentences as a motivator.

The bureau cites research has shown people who go through mental health courts are significantly less likely to get in trouble again than similar folks who go through the traditional courts. With Arkansas prisons and county jails facing overcrowding, there's one more reason to avoid incarcerating someone whose issues with crime are rooted in medicine, not anti-social decisions.

For people with mental health difficulties, justice should not be focused on punishment. Mental illness isn't anyone's fault. True justice is served by attacking the root causes of their behaviors.

In a few years, we suspect Arkansans will look back on the creation of multiple Crisis Stabilization Centers across the state as a watershed moment in the way state and local law enforcement handles people with mental illness. A 16-bed facility has opened in Fort Smith, giving officers a place other than jail to take people suffering through acute mental episodes. Now, Sebastian County wants to add the additional element of a specialized court that can marshal the services needed to divert people from the traditional courts

Sometimes, we hear people who are skeptical about mental illness, who worry it's just an excuse to let criminals off the hook for their choices. Mental health court won't be a get-out-of-jail free card, though. According to the state law allowing the court's creation, no one accused of violence or required to register as a sex offender will be eligible to go through the new court.

What Sebastian County is doing can save lives and make lives more meaningful. If the county is successful in developing a mental health court, the process will quickly become a difference maker. And it is significant, too, in the ongoing effort to ensure mental illness is not viewed as a crime, because it's not.

Such a court will also improve efficiency in traditional courts by removing cases that don't belong there.

We hope Sebastian County gets its grant and proceeds quickly toward this better method of tackling mental illness and its impact on the criminal justice system. We also hope other counties are paying attention, ready to learn. Whether someone with mental illness is jailed or treated should not depend on geography.

Commentary on 05/26/2018

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