Mental Health Court UPDATES

(Posted 06-10-08)

The date for our next Task Force meeting is now scheduled for Monday, June 23rd, at 4PM in Judge Sweat's office. Athens-Clarke County.

We will be receiving updates on our various sub-projects that will be wrapping up - feedback from those attending the state's Drug, DUI and Mental Health Court conference in Peachtree City, homeless/jail survey results from School of Social Work, legal issues summaries and recommendations from Alex Scherr, community mapping from Athens Justice Project and next steps on the launch process.

(Posted 05-14-08)

Thanks again to everyone who was able to attend yesterday's update meeting.  The turnout was great and is a reflection on how important this issue is to all of us.  Our apologies if we were not able to chat with each of you personally.

We have been diligently working on several sub-projects over the last few months and those efforts will all begin to come together during the next two months as we move towards our mid-July launch.  We are going to need assistance again from everyone to review documentation and materials as they get produced.  Several of you asked for us to follow-up on the updates we discussed so that you could share the information with others.

FY 2009 Request for a Part-Time Case Manager

Many of you asked about the proposed part-time Case Manager requested by the courts and in which is included the Mayor's proposed budget.  As mentioned, due to the possibility of a local millage increase, Commissioners are considering cutting back and limiting new initiatives in an effort to reduce or eliminate the need for the millage increase.  This position, and the minimal costs needed to support it ($26,900), may be cut from the budget as part of scaling back the county's budget.     

Without a Case Manager, even at a part-time level, the court would not be able to provide the level of support services, monitoring and coordination needed to ensure the success of the program.  Further, as noted yesterday, the court is relying on the local funding of the part-time position in order to meet the local match funding necessary for this and future grants.

On behalf of the Task Force, Judge Sweat and Judge Tate will be sending a letter to the Mayor and Commissioner requesting that the part-time Case Manager remain in the budget.  To that end, based on feedback from you all and our research, we are prepared to note that the program can initially prioritize those who are chronically incarcerated - either through frequent and/or lengthy incarcerations.

For those interested, you may wish to communicate your concerns directly to the Mayor & Commission.  Some sample text is at the end of this message.  Contact information can be found at:  http://www.athensclarkecounty.com/commission/

University of Georgia Projects

UGA School of Social Work through Dr. Risler and his team of students is compiling the data from a recent homeless survey.  The survey is intended to set a baseline for the local homeless who have self-identified mental illness and what their interactions have been with the criminal justice system, the jail and social services.  Additional, they have been working on setting up our baseline data for performance measurement, designing forms for referral, intake and release of information.  Alex Scherr and his team of students from the Law School has been assessing various legal issues such as: how cases can be referred from the various levels of courts, the impacts of entry into the program at the various stages of a case (pre-plea, post-plea, pre-sentencing, etc), HIPPA and confidentiality issues and synthesizing concerns and comments from the prosecutors and public defender.

Impact of a Mental Health Court

As part of the planning grant, the court has worked with UGA and others to further refine and identify the target population in our local community.  As a result, we have identified three primary categories of individuals with mental illness who have contact with the criminal justice system who are: homeless, chronically incarcerated or have a co-occurring substance abuse issue such as drug or alcohol addictions.  Each group has unique needs.  Many also interact with other programs and social services organizations for some form of assistance.  The assistance provided by the court's Case Manager and treatment provider would supplement these existing community resources and serve as a focal point to ensure that a continuum of care and services is available.  

Jail Impacts of a Mental Health Court

"A dedicated court docket should be provided to handle cases where a mental disorder was likely to be the primary causal factor of a criminal offense, which should result in a diversion to mental health treatment rather than jail detention.  [...] A 1% reduction in jail population may be possible with as many as five to six jail detainees likely to be found suitable for diversion."  Source - Carter Goble Associates, Inc.  CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM NEEDS ASSESSMENT, Final Report dated July 18, 2003

In recent months, the average daily population of the Clarke County Jail has ranged from 475 to just over 500 inmates.  Per the estimates from the county's consultant, a 1% reduction is possible which would be the equivalent of 4-5 jail beds (costing approximately $62-$82K per year).  In terms of individuals, this represents at least 16-20 assuming that each spends about 90 days in jail.  With a part-time Case Manager, the court anticipates that it can address no more than 1/2 of these chronically incarcerated individuals (equivalent to 2-3 beds or $31-41K per year in jail savings).  

2 Years' Funding Applied for Under Federal Grant

We are seeking an implementation grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.  If awarded, that grant would provide up to $200,000 for up to 2 years.  This funding would allow us to increase our initial expected capacity of about 15-20 participants to as many as 50 or so while also continuing to reach out to the community to firmly establish the necessary linkages to sustain the program permanently.  The grant will assist in providing the services based on the evidence that judicial supervision ensures effective mental health and substance abuse treatment which reduces criminal behavior, thereby leading to fewer arrests and less jail time, and improving the quality of life for the participants.  Additionally, the grant provides opportunity for specialized training programs for criminal justice and mental health personnel as well as provides mental health treatment and transitional services for those incarcerated in preparing them for safe reentry into the community.  A few of the highlights of the grant are:

*Provide funds for direct service delivery (treatment/counseling, temporary housing, medication, transportation, vocational/job/skills training, etc)

*Create a full-time case manager (funding difference between county-funded position and a full-time position)

*Continue Community Outreach project with Athens Justice Project

*Establish an assistantship at the UGA School of Social Work dedicated to the mental health court for research and program evaluation

Launch Efforts

As noted Tuesday, we are preparing to launch mid-July.  As part of that effort, we will need some assistance.  First and foremost wee need assistance from some organizations to volunteer to co-host the event and/or reach out to the media, other organizations, etc.  It is our goal to have a forum and invite the local bar, prosecutors, public defenders, police, probation, jail staff, mental health providers, etc.  The forum would provide an overview of the new program as well as the existing drug courts and describe who is eligible and how cases may be referred to the various programs.  We think it would be helpful for local mental health providers or advocates to speak generally about common signs of mental illness, their prevalency in the community, etc.  Please help!  

Next Meeting

A date has not yet been set, but we are planning for late June.  This will allow the group to come back together to review the final reports from our UGA projects, discuss the various program participation documents, and get updates on the housing and mental health provider forum from early June and feedback from the state DUI, Drug and Mental Health Court Conference in Peachtree City in mid-June.  We'll also be able to discuss the details of the launch forum.

Sample Message Text

It is with great hope that we offer this letter of support for the creation of a part-time Case Manager for Athens-Clarke County's new Treatment and Accountability Court.  We believe that a mental health court will assist offenders with mental illness in reducing their length and frequency of incarcerations and help resolve cases in a way that increases access to treatment and reintegration back into the community.   We have worked with the Court as part of its planning efforts and remain committed to collaborating with this project in any way that we can to help ensure its success.  We believe that this approach is in the best interest of not only the citizens directly affected but the community at large as well.