Jail Time, Repeated Offenses Reduced With Mental Health Courts

Mental health courts seem to help reduce repeat offending and limiting related jail time, according to new research.

Researchers found that offenders who participated in mental health courts who had substance use problems had a 4.76 times greater decrease in jail time from repeat offending when compared to offenders without substance abuse problems who participated in the mental health courts. Mental health courts are county-level courts designed to divert offenders with mental health problems from jail that help set them up with community-based treatment programs instead.

"Offenders who went through traditional courts had 1.8 times more charges and spent almost five times more days in jail for repeat offenses, when compared to offenders who graduated from the MHC after completing their terms of participation," said Evan Lowder, a Ph.D. student at NC State and lead author of the paper, in a news release.

During the study, researchers evaluated 97 people in Minnesota who had mental health problems and also committed misdemeanors or gross misdemeanors that ranged from threatening someone to shoplifting. Fifty-seven of the people went through mental health courts while another 40 went through the conventional court system.

Findings revealed that offenders who went through the normal courts spent 1.6 times more days in jail for repeat offenses than offenders who went through mental health court. The effect proved much stronger and researchers looked at both offenders who went through a mental health court and those who completed their mental health court programs as well.

The research is published in the journal Law and Human Behavior.

Related Articles

Mental Health: Family Doctors Treat 1 In 3 Kids With Emotional Disorders

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).