Results of Mental Health Court Pilot Program Presented at International Conference
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 25, 2005
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
Gary Bess
530-898-3426
Results of Mental Health Court Pilot Program Presented at International Conference
Adjunct School of Social Work faculty members, Gary Bess, PhD, and Jim Myers, MSW, participated on a panel in Paris, France, July 4, organized by the International Association for Law and Mental Health. Joining Bess and Myers was Butte County Superior Court Judge Stephen Benson.
Their presentation, held at the University of Paris, was titled “A Three-year Comparative Study of Behavioral and Criminal Justice Outcomes for Mentally Ill Offenders Seen in a Mental Health Court.”
Judge Benson presided over a specialized mental health court as part of a three-year pilot program funded by the California Board of Corrections. The program closed June 2004 when funding ended.
Bess and Myers oversaw the evaluation of the program, which studied two groups of mentally ill offenders-one group receiving enhanced treatment services and the other receiving the community’s current standard of care.
The enhanced treatment group benefited from a multidisciplinary intervention team composed of representatives from the County’s Sheriff’s Office, Probation Department, Behavioral Health Department, District Attorney’s Office, Public Defender’s Office, and the Superior Court.
Approximately 100 mentally ill offenders were randomly assigned to each of the two groups. The study showed that enhanced treatment participants were booked into jail fewer times, averaged fewer days in jail when they were booked and had improved behavioral functioning and quality of life.
Attending the four-day conference were criminal justice and mental health professionals from around the world, including judges from Australia and New Brunswick.
Specialized courts, such as for drug users or the mentally ill, are an emerging alternative to conventional jurisprudence. Approximately 16 percent of jail and prison populations have been diagnosed with a mental illness, and greater numbers are arrested, jailed, and released, according to population studies.
Bess and Myers have been invited to prepare a manuscript for a special issue of the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, based on their research.
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