Mental Health Court

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Mental health courts are a recent and rapidly expanding phenomenon. In the late 1990s only a few such courts were accepting cases. Since then, nearly than 300 others have been established, and dozens more are being planned. The vast majority of mental health courts share the following characteristics:

• A specialized court docket that uses a problem-solving approach to court processing in lieu of more traditional court procedures for certain defendants with mental illnesses
• 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
• Regular status hearings at which treatment plans and other conditions are reviewed periodically 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
• Criteria defining a participant’s completion of (sometimes called graduation from) the program

Download a primer on mental health courts

Mental Health Court Learning Sites

To facilitate peer-to-peer assistance among mental health courts, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)—through its technical assistance provider, the Justice Center—has designated these five mental health courts as "learning sites."

• Akron Municipal Mental Health Court (Ohio)
• Bonneville County Mental Health Court (Idaho)
• Bronx County Mental Health Court (New York)
• Dougherty Superior Court Mental Health Substance Abuse Division (Georgia)
• Washoe County Multi-jurisdictional Mental Health Court (Nevada)

Find out more about the mental health court learning sites