Research indicates that justice involved persons have significantly greater proportions of mental, substance use, and co-occurring disorders than are found in the public. SJI supports cross-sector collaboration and information sharing that emphasizes policies and practices designed to improve court responses to justice-involved persons with behavioral health and other co-occurring needs.
Wyoming Judicial Branch Mental Health Diversion Project
The Wyoming Judicial Branch is implementing a Three-Branch Mental Health Diversion project with the immediate goal of supporting and evaluating implementation of a new diversion program in Campbell County, with the long-term goal of implementation statewide. This diversion program works to establish a new framework that diverts misdemeanants with significant mental illness and substance use disorders away from the criminal justice system into community-based treatment and support services.
Leading Change in Competency to Stand Trial Systems
The Illinois Supreme Court has long recognized its role in responding to mental illness and thus, established an Advisory Committee for Justice and Mental Health Planning (JMHPC). Acknowledging Illinois’ competency to stand trial practices are under pressure due to growing demands, the JMHPC, with support from the National Center for State Courts, will lead, evaluate, and develop court-driven solutions to improve competency to stand trial practices.
Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health Summit
The Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health will host a Mental Health Summit in the spring of 2023. The Summit will gather community teams to collaborate in their efforts to more effectively respond to the needs of court-involved individuals with mental illness. The Summit will provide an opportunity to discuss, develop, and implement a comprehensive continuum of behavioral health interventions for Kentucky Courts and communities.
Indiana Mental Health Summit
The Indiana Supreme Court, in partnership with the Indiana General Assembly, the Office of the Governor and other Indiana justice stakeholders held a one-day Mental Health Summit on October 21, 2022. All Indiana counties were invited to bring a multidisciplinary team to discuss best practices in mental health services for justice involved persons.
Court Navigation and Support
Policy Research Associates, Inc. is conducting a multi-phase project to understand the scope, mechanisms, and effectiveness of strategies and approaches that civil and criminal courts are using to provide non-legal aid to help people with unmet needs better navigate the court system and have their needs identified and addressed. The final product will be an evidence-based model that defines the core components of these navigation/support programs and details the guidelines to be used by courts to implement the approach in their jurisdiction.
Achieving the Goals of the Illinois Mental Health Task Force
The Illinois Courts, with assistance from the National Center for State Courts, will lay the foundation to accomplish the goals of the Illinois Mental Health Task Force. They will develop a governance and Task Force structure, complete a statewide assessment of the court and community response to behavioral health, identify statewide data sources, create a statewide vision for a behavioral health continuum of care and diversion and develop a plan to improve court and community responses.
Colorado Fifth Judicial District Mental Health Improvement Initiative
The Fifth Judicial District of Colorado is implementing the analytical strategies from the Council of State Government Justice Center’s Learning Collaborative to use case flow management best practices with coordinated court and community responses to address general case processing delays, as well as delays in competency evaluations. The court seeks to create a culture of continuous evaluation and continuous improvement regarding the caseflow management of competency evaluations and restoration, as well as other caseflow management of criminal cases involving those with mental illness. The project will also examine community responses to those individuals with mental health challenges in all four counties within the district. The project design is to establish an action plan that addresses short and long-term needs and to coordinate these efforts with the Colorado Behavioral Health Task Force.
Mediation and Mental Health
The Office of Dispute Resolution for Lubbock County, Texas (ODR), in conjunction with the National Center for State Courts (NCSC), is developing a series of workshops and a “Best Practices” guide for mediators working with disputants/litigants who may have a mental illness. The purpose of the project is to increase mediators’ understanding and sensitivity to mental health and teach them to utilize their skills to better assist disputants who may be struggling to participate in the process. The ODR will host a series of workshops for mediators, utilizing professionals in mental health, mediation, and the law. The trainings will focus on educating mediators to recognize mental illness, how to respond, and what resources are available for disputants. The information gleaned from these workshops will be recorded in a “Best Practices” manual.
Recovery and Mental Health Oriented System of Care Model
The Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) is engaged with the Crime and Justice Institute (CJI) to conduct a system-wide assessment to pave the transition to the Recovery-Oriented System of Care Court Model. The Kentucky Court of Justice (KCOJ) and the AOC are examining this shift from a sanction-based, compliance court model, to a recovery-oriented system of care court model that addresses co-occurring substance use and/or mental health issues. A recovery-oriented system of care court model will result in formal and informal structures for individuals with substance use and/or mental health disorders to receive appropriate treatment. The goal of this project will be to inform the KJOC and AOC about the challenges and opportunities to link individuals with treatment services, and how to implement a court model that accomplishes this goal. The final report will provide information and recommendations on best practices and a framework for implementing the recovery system of care model.
Presiding Judges on Leading Change
The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) is utilizing the Guide to Leading Change on Improving the Courts’ Response to Mental Health and conducting research on best practices in responding to other criminal justice challenges to develop a model curriculum for a Judicial Officer Educational Program on Leading Change in their communities. Initially, NCSC is working with the Missouri Courts to develop and conduct regional programs to educate presiding judges and other stakeholders on identifying and addressing criminal justice issues in their communities. The NCSC will then assist one or two additional states to conduct statewide and/or regional training programs.
This project will result in a replicable curriculum to educate and prepare presiding judges to lead change in their communities. Most notably, the curriculum will provide specific focus on mental health, substance use, racial fairness, pre-trial reform, recidivism, and public safety, among other key areas. The materials developed will be adaptable to be used in every state’s judicial education programming.
Minnesota Sixth Judicial District Opioid Response Assessment
Due to the significant number of overdose deaths due to opioids in St. Louis County, Minnesota, the Sixth Judicial District of Minnesota engaged Rulo Strategies to map community capabilities to close the gaps and make connections between arrest, incarceration, and treatment to get people the help they need. This project complemented other efforts to expand the use of MAT in the justice system, within the jail setting and continuation immediately after discharge. The final project report includes: 1) documentation of existing services and gaps in the treatment of individuals with opioid use disorders; documentation of stakeholder support and concerns for various service delivery options to better meet the needs of individuals with OUD in the criminal justice system; 2) recommendations for a phased approach to systemic service delivery change; 3) and an implementation plan for funding options and next steps.
Rural Responses to the Opioid Epidemic Demonstration Project
The Rural Responses to the Opioid Epidemic leverages the combined resources and expertise of the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the State Justice Institute (SJI), along with other federal partners, to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with opioid overdoses among individuals who come in contact with law enforcement or are involved in the criminal justice system in high-risk rural communities and regions. Twenty-one rural communities across the country that have been substantially impacted by the opioid epidemic were selected to participate in the initiative, which includes a six-month planning phase to identify gaps and an 18-month implementation phase to expand or enhance existing efforts or implement new programs and practices.
National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts’ Response to Mental Illness
On March 30, 2020, the Boards of Directors of the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court Administrators took action to establish National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts Response to Mental Illness to assist state courts in their efforts to more effectively respond to the needs of court-involved individuals with serious mental illness. The work of the Task Force will be guided by the following principles:
- A community by community approach, supported by statewide leadership from all three branches of government, is required to improve the justice system response to those with mental illness and co-occurring disorders.
- Supporting judicial leadership to implement the Sequential Intercept Model to promote early access to treatment for mental illness and co-occurring disorders and to keep individuals from continuing to penetrate the justice system.
- Developing best practices, research, and data to improve justice system responses including competency delays, civil commitment, assisted outpatient treatment practices, deflection and diversion, caseflow management practices involving those with mental illness and co-occurring disorders, and other strategies to improve our responses.
- Promoting education and training for judges and court personnel to improve our capacity to lead change in our states and communities and to understand mental illness and co-occurring disorders and their impact on court proceedings.
- Carrying forward the important work started by the CCJ-COSCA National Judicial Opioid Task Force (NJOTF).
Opioids and Children in State Courts
The National Center for State Courts (NCSC), the Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR), the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), and The National Judicial College (NJC) have developed a collaboration to assist state courts in addressing the impact of opioids on children. The collaboration focuses on both provision of technical assistance as well as education and training.
The NCSC continues to work on addressing the impact of the opioid epidemic on children and families, particularly the impact on the foster care system. That work has included working to identify promising and best practices to pilot in state and local courts that will improve outcomes for children impacted by the opioid epidemic, such as:
- Infusing Family Treatment Court Core Principles to All Dependency Cases.
- Expanding the Blueprint Framework.
- Courts partnering with the medical community to address the needs of pregnant women with opioid use disorder and infants born substance exposed.
To address the impact of opioids on children in state courts, BJA is partnering with SJI to support intensive training and technical assistance effort designed to assist local courts and their stakeholders in strongly aligning existing opioid initiatives in their communities, and developing comprehensive and multidisciplinary approaches to more effectively respond to Opioid Use Disorders (OUD) and other emerging drug threats.
BJA is also partnering with SJI to convene experts and stakeholders from across the United States in the fields of courts, child welfare, schools and law enforcement to discuss the impact of the opioid epidemic on children and families, and to discuss best practices and opportunities for collaboration across disciplines.
In FY 2020, the NCJFCJ is hosting two regional summits for interested court jurisdictions who are currently impacted by the opioid epidemic. During each of the two-day summits, participants will learn from experts, discuss best practices in handling opioid related cases and develop action plans to implement when returning to their local jurisdiction that address the unique needs of children and families impacted by opioid misuse.
NCJFCJ will host two national webinars that will examine “Innovative Practices in Handling Opioid Related Cases” and “Lessons Learned from Regional Opioid Summit Courts.” These interactive virtual learning opportunities will be open to courts across the nation and participants will be given the opportunity to ask questions of expert presenters and learn from other participants.
The NCJFJC will collaborate on specific deliverables with the NJC: 1) Webinars as a Series on Opioid Use Disorder and the Courts: Protecting Children and Supporting Families; and 2) Four course inserts built into NJC’s General Jurisdiction Course. NJC will convene a curriculum advisory group to select the topics, faculty and additional resources.
Fair Justice for Persons with Mental Illness
The Arizona Supreme Court worked with the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) to develop protocols that address the fair treatment of persons with mental health issues who appear before local judges in criminal cases. Those protocols were presented in a Guide for Arizona Presiding Judges: Improving Court’s Response for Persons with Mental Illness, for judges to use to lead change around mental health issues in their communities.
National Judicial Opioid Task Force
The National Judicial Opioid Task Force (NJOTF) was established by the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA), with funding from SJI, in August 2017 to address the issue of opioid-related cases and promote solutions nationwide. The National Center for State Courts supports the NJOTF Resource Center, a repository for judges and court staff to access opioid-related information and materials. The resource center offers the nation’s courts a comprehensive collection of best practices, policy recommendations, research, statistics, podcasts, and other information on opioids and the courts. In addition to creating the resource center, the task force has also worked with federal and state law-enforcement partners to create data sharing, partnerships, and policies; improved access to federal funding for state courts; and presented at numerous national conferences and summits to showcase innovative collaborations that are working across the country.