What Happened?
Topeka is using a $91,000 federal grant to fund an Alternative Sentencing Court, which will strive to keep certain types of criminals out of jail and enrolled in treatment programs. The court is designed to reduce the financial burden of overpopulated prisons while reducing criminal activity.
Goal
The City of Topeka received a $91,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice awarded through the Kansas Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. The federal grant will be used to launch an Alternative Sentencing Court that will take on cases of those charged with a misdemeanor or traffic offense. If the accused has been diagnosed with a severe mental illness, they will qualify to participate in a new program that offers them treatment rather than jail time.
The goal is to tackle the growing number of misdemeanors committed by individuals with mental illnesses by making treatment programs more available, aiming to reduce recidivism with wellness tools rather than jail time. By offering the program, Topeka hopes to not only reduce the burden on the Shawnee County Jail, but lower the head count in the Osawatomie State Hospital.
The Alternative Sentencing Court will assign eligible defendants to the program, which requires participants to:
- Attend one year of mental health treatment and drug testing
- Appear for all court hearings
- Pay court fees
- Pay treatment costs
Creating the Alternative Sentencing Court may save Topeka money in the long-term by approaching mental health issues at the community-level while actively addressing criminal activity. The federal grant awarded to Topeka was made possible by the Law Enforcement and Mental Health Project Act signed in 2000.
Mental Health Courts
According to the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, mental health courts have feet in both the criminal law and mental health fields, relying on collaboration from practitioners on either side to address criminal activity with health-focused solutions. These courts are vital to accommodating individuals with mental illnesses in the justice system considering:
- About 250,000 people with severe mental illness are incarcerated in the United States, half for non-violent offenses
- More than 500,000 with a serious mental illness are on probation
- 16 percent of state and local inmates suffer from a mental illness but receive no treatment beyond medication
For a mental health court system to be successful at the state and local level, the study identified three critical elements:
- Treatment and services resources
- Alternatives to arrest and diversion programs at the time of arrest, at jail before booking and at arraignment
- Court procedures that do not make a mental health court more coercive than a standard criminal court
Furthermore, mental health courts should not only focus on misdemeanor cases, but consider accepting people charged with more serious offenses who fit the profile of an ideal participant for the treatment programs available.
To best measure the performance of mental health courts, the National Center for State Courts recommends keeping track of:
- Participant Accountability: Attendance at treatment and judicial sessions
- Social Functioning: Progress toward securing a stable living environment
- Case Processing: Monitoring time spent in each stage of processing
- Collaboration: Teamwork between legal and mental health professionals
- Treatment: Individualized treatment and supervision
- Procedural Fairness: Participant satisfaction
- Post-Exit Transition: Preparing the participant and recidivism rates
These performance measures can be used to manage the new court system as well as demonstrate accountability to funding agencies, external partners and the public.
Upgrading The Courts
Gov1 has reported on a growing number of grants available through the DOJ designed to improve court efficiency and reduce recidivism.