Michigan: Legislation to create mental health courts passes senate

[HereSince1628]

LANSING, MI — After receiving approval from the state Senate Thursday, a package of bills that would create mental health courts throughout Michigan now moves to the governor's desk for approval.

House Bills 4694-97 would create mental health courts throughout Michigan. State Rep. Margaret O'Brien, who authored HB 4697, said the legislation was introduced, in part, due to the success of Kalamazoo County's mental health courts.

"The system that has been established in Kalamazoo County is a shining example of the success mental health can have across the state of Michigan," said O'Brien, R-Portage "Currently over 20 percent of inmates in the state suffer from some form of mental illness. This legislation will help these people to get the help they need and rehabilitate their lives which in turn will have a positive effect on taxpayers saving them money and reducing the strain on the overburdened prison system in this state."

Under the legislation, a mental health court must provide consistent and close monitoring of all participants, periodic and random drug and alcohol testing; periodic assessment of the participant's progress; and mental health services, substance use services, education, and vocational opportunities.

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http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2013/12/counties_could_be_required_to.html

[HereSince1628]

1. Poll in MI newspaper re should mental health courts be accessible>

http://www.uppermichiganssource.com/news/story.aspx?id=982334#.Uq3Ao-IljwI

Poll: Mental health courts? With this new policy in place, should mental health courts be more accessible?

Yes 83%
No 17%

[HereSince1628]

2. Mental Health America (MHA) Policy statement on Mental Health Courts

Mental Health America (MHA):

Supports the use of mental health courts to the extent that they reduce the number of persons with mental illnesses in the criminal justice system, reduce the number of persons with mental illnesses who are further stigmatized by a criminal conviction and reduce the number of persons with mental illnesses in prisons and jails.

Supports the use of mental health courts which are part of a larger effort to divert persons with mental illnesses from the criminal justice system by improving mental health services and providing diversion at the earliest possible stage.

Encourages jurisdictions to follow those mental health court models which use the least possible coercion.

Opposes mental health courts which are intended or result in bringing more people with mental illnesses into the criminal justice system, whether as an effort to expand civil commitment through the coercion of criminal justice diversion and sentencing procedures or as a misguided panacea to “solve” homelessness and other social problems or make scarce treatment resources available to a subset of those in need. At the extreme, mental health courts run the risk of taking over a portion of the treatment system to the effective exclusion of civil commitment and its standards.

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http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/positions/mental-health-courts