Question

People with mental illness often find themselves involved in the criminal justice system. In what way do you think that the criminal justice system can best improve their responses to those with mental illnesses? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

• The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), signed into law on July 26, 1990, bans discrimination based on having a disability. It provides people with developmental disabilities the civil rights protections similar to the rights provided on the basis of race, gender, national origin, and religion.
• The ADA has improved the response of the criminal justice system to people with disabilities in a number of ways since 1990. Courts must make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities upon request, unless such accommodation fundamentally alters its activity or structure or involves an undue financial burden.
• Crisis Intervention Teams (CIT). CIT programs are hypothesized to improve officers’ abilities to effectively, respectfully and safely interact with persons with mental illness and subsequently divert more of them away from the criminal justice system and to mental health services. CIT is being widely implemented in medium and large size cities across the United States as a policy initiative to improve responsiveness to mental illness.
• Mental health courts have been created in numerous jurisdictions across the United States, largely as a response to the increasing number of defendants with serious mental health conditions (“mental illnesses”) who are caught up in the criminal justice system. It encourages jurisdictions to follow those mental health court models which use the least possible coercion.
• Access to community-based mental health treatment services for all people needs to be improved, and should not depend on the existence of mental health courts. Equally effective services should be assured for the treatment needs of persons not accused of crimes.
• Meaningful diversion would require that when appropriate, no charges would be filed, and the individual is diverted directly to treatment without entering the criminal justice system. In the alternative, when charges must be filed, criminal proceedings should be deferred for a set period, usually not exceeding a year. Dismissal of criminal charges would then be guaranteed after a set period of successful treatment participation.
• Relapses are inevitable during the recovery process. As such, an individual's time under jurisdiction of the mental health court should not be extended as a result of these relapses.