Ohio's Mental Health Court builds leadership and intergovernmental and community partnership to prevent and end chronic homelessness.

Ohio's Mental Health Court - one of the Special Courts in Ohio's Supreme Court "Specialized Docket" - demonstrates political will in partnerships for better outcomes for persons who are homeless with mental health issues and in the criminal justice system. Ohio judicial leaders have created strategic partnerships with state agencies in both the executive and judicial branches, and with local judicial and service agencies seeking to break the cycle of random ricocheting for persons with behavioral health issues and histories of homelessness who are in the court system.

The result is an active intergovernmental partnership model for the judiciary in pursuit of the goal of preventing and ending chronic homelessness, demonstrated in policy through participation in the Ohio Interagency Council on Homelessness and Affordable Housing and other collaborative interagency venues at the national, state, and local level, and in practice through training events, conferences, and best practice events for judges and their court staffs on issues and resources (including housing, counseling, medication, and employment assistance) for special populations.

Ohio's Mental Health Court is an example of the "problem-solving courts" that Ohio has encouraged statewide. The Specialized Docket model focuses on the "cultivation of community collaborations for a complete systems approach to handle cases with the highest recidivism rates." In practice, Ohio's example shows the importance of the judiciary as a partner in State Interagency Councils and jurisdictional 10 Year Plans.

Supreme Court of Ohio Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, who is a national leader on the strategy of special courts, established the Ohio Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on Mental Illness and the Courts (ACMIC) in 2001, which she chairs. The Advisory Committee is made up of over 50 representatives from the Ohio Departments of Mental Health, Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, and Rehabilitation and Correction, and the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services, Judges, law enforcement, mediation experts, housing and treatment providers, consumer advocacy groups, and other officials from across the state.

Collaborative partnership between the judiciary and executive branches in Ohio is further supported by the inclusion of the Supreme Court on the state Interagency Council on Homelessness and Affordable Housing, created by Executive Order of Governor Ted Strickland last year. Chaired by Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher, the state ICH recently convened its meeting at the Ohio Judicial Center, where they were welcomed by Judge Stratton.

Individuals who are homeless or at risk and living with mental illness benefit from a collaborative, holistic, and informed strategy to support and stabilize them in the community, monitor progress and compliance, and address barriers and challenges.

Judicial partners benefit from having a broader network of choices, resources, and experts who can identify critical partners and expand positive outcomes for individuals, while supporting the court's role.

State and local government and service agencies benefit by working together to solve the issues facing their clients, stabilizing individuals, promoting treatment and recovery, and reducing costly recidivism.

The community benefits by increasing stabilization for vulnerable and costly individuals. According to Justice Stratton, in Ohio, the mental health program costs taxpayers $30 a day, versus prison ($60), a mental hospital ($450), and a general hospital ($1,500).

The Supreme Court's Advisory Committee has organized numerous trainings and conferences for judges and their court staffs on issues related to mental illness impacting both adults and juveniles. The Advisory Committee has also supported the local creation of mental health courts and jail diversion programs. Over 100 specialized dockets are in operation in Ohio, including over 70 Drug Courts, over 30 Mental Health Courts, and 5 Re-Entry Courts.

Along with the Criminal Justice Coordinating Center of Excellence, the Advisory Committee has fostered the adoption of Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training by police academies, departments, and sheriff's offices. Ohio has more courts operating mental health dockets and law enforcement officers trained in crisis intervention than any other state.

The Ohio Specialized Dockets Practitioner Network is another component of the strategy and consists of several sub-networks of specialized docket professionals organized by discipline. These include: Judges and Magistrates, Prosecutors, Defense Counsel, Probation Officers, Mental Health Clinicians, Drug Treatment Counselors, Coordinators, Case Managers, and Children Services Workers. These groups are further divided by jurisdiction - adults or juveniles.

Two Kent State University evaluations of Ohio mental health courts found that those individuals who completed their court process reported an increased quality of life because of reduced stigma about their illness, and that "those who successfully complete MHC experienced fewer incarcerations after program participation when compared to their previous behaviors and in comparison to other consumers of mental health services. We conclude that this indicates that the program has the desired effects in slowing the revolving door of criminalization."

The Supreme Court of Ohio and Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton have provided national leadership on the strategy of special courts and have sought out partners from all sectors to expand awareness and solutions. Justice Stratton has used her position to foster dialogue on the issues of mental illness and the criminal justice system.

To promote effective judicial efforts nationally on this issue, she became co-founder along with Miami/Dade County Circuit Court Judge Steven Leifman of the national Judges' Criminal Justice/Mental Health Leadership Initiative (JLI) and co-chairs the Returning Home Advisory Commission, which assists with prisoner re-entry to reduce recidivism and its cost to society. The Council of State Governments (CSG) Criminal Justice / Mental Health Consensus Project and the Technical Assistance and Policy Analysis (TAPA) Center for Jail Diversion convene JLI.

Some Mental Health Courts are funded federally through the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act in 2004, spearheaded by then Sen. Mike DeWine and then Rep. Ted Strickland, now Ohio Governor, to advance local efforts to divert mentally ill offenders into community treatment programs.

To learn more about the Ohio Specialized Dockets Section, contact the Supreme Court of Ohio:
65 South Front Street, 6th Floor
Columbus, Ohio 43215-3431
Phone: 614-387-9425
E-mail: specdocs@sconet.state.oh.us or visit the web site.

To learn more about the Ohio Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Mental Illness and the Courts and read articles about effectively dealing with mentally ill offenders in the criminal justice system, visit the web site.

To learn more about the Judges' Criminal Justice/Mental Health Leadership Initiative (JLI), and see resources for Judges, including sample forms, fact sheets, research on mental health courts, and other materials for a court's day-to-day operations, visit http://consensusproject.org/JLI/

Read the new Department of Justice report: Improving Responses to People with Mental Illnesses: The Essential Elements of a Mental Health Court or Strategies for Court Collaboration with Service Communities.

The National GAINS Center has operated since 1995 to collect and disseminate information about effective mental health and substance abuse services for people with co-occurring disorders in the justice system. The TAPA Center for Jail Diversion and the Center for Evidence-Based Programs in the Justice System (funded by the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) in 2001 and 2004 respectively), comprise the National GAINS Center. Read more at: http://gainscenter.samhsa.gov/html/

The Judiciary is an important partner in local and state response to homeless persons with mental illness, joining local and state agencies in seeking solutions to the revolving door of this population in the criminal justice system. Judges have recognized that people with mental illness and co-occurring disorders, who often were also homeless, were significantly over-represented among the defendants appearing before them again and again. In some communties, Courts and Special Courts have convened proceedings at Project Homeless Connect events

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Mental Health Courts typically employ a problem-solving approach to court processing in lieu of more traditional court procedures for certain defendants, with judicially supervised, community-based treatment plans for each defendant participating in the court, which a team of court staff and mental health professionals design and implement. Courts hold regular status hearings at which treatment plans and other conditions are periodically reviewed for appropriateness, incentives are offered to reward adherence to court conditions, and sanctions are imposed on participants who do not adhere to the conditions of participation. Generally there are specific criteria defining a participant's completion of the program.

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