By Susan Redden
sredden@joplinglobe.com
A new court program aimed at reducing the number of people with mental health problems who end up in jail will start next year in Jasper County.
The program will be funded by a federal grant, and will involve officials from the mental health and court systems, according to Del Camp, vice president of clinical operations for the Ozark Center.
Camp prepared the application for the $250,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. Jasper County sponsored the grant and will be the conduit for the funding, he said.
Mental health issues
Dean Dankelson, prosecuting attorney, said his office supports the program “because we need to find some other method of dealing with defendants with mental health issues.”
“It happens often enough that I thought there was a need,” he said. “Right now, prison or probation are the only options, and neither addressed the needs of someone with a mental health issue. This will do that, avoid locking them up.”
The funding will be used to develop a mental health court to which some offenders will be referred from the traditional court system. Charges would be dismissed if the offender completes assigned treatment. Those who do not follow through would be returned to court for sentencing, Camp said.
“We feel like the community would win in every way, because the offender would be held accountable and would have a higher level of motivation to follow through on treatment,” he said. “And, they would be less likely to re-offend and end up back in the system.”
Plans call for the program to start after the first of the year, Dankelson said. For offenders who are arrested and charged, officials with the legal system will identify those they believe would benefit from the program. The prosecuting attorney’s office will review the case to determine if mental health issues were a factor in the arrest, and the offender will be assessed for treatment. Those selected for the court program will be admitted to mental health court after they enter a guilty plea.
Erik Thies, with the Joplin office of the Missouri Division of Probation and Parole, said the effort will target primarily first-time, nonviolent offenders who are charged with a felony. Organizers expect the program will deal with about 90 people over a three-year period.
Participants
Officials said the collaborative plan will include a judge, a representative from the prosecuting attorney’s office, a defense attorney, a representative of mental health treatment providers, and a representative from the probation and parole office.
“If they complete treatment, they would be allowed to withdraw their guilty plea, and the prosecutor would dismiss the case,” Camp said. “Those that don’t stay with treatment go back to court for sentencing, since they’ve already pleaded guilty.”
Treatment would include case management, medication management, and individual and group therapy, as well as referral to self-help and support groups.
About six mental health courts are in place in Missouri, according to Scott Johnson, chief state supervisor for the Missouri Board of Probation and Parole.
He said the courts have been in operation since 2001 and were built on the successful drug court model “that gets everybody on board to get the offender on the right path.”
Johnson said “significant numbers” of people with mental health problems are ending up in the criminal justice system. He said one factor has been the closing of state hospitals for the mentally ill.
“There are services in communities, but people with mental health issues may have difficulty accessing services, or may need help with transportation, housing and scheduling,” he said. “This puts all that in place.”
Lane Roberts, Joplin police chief, said he supports programs that divert from jail people whose arrests are grounded in some mental health problem. But, he believes there must be “strict criteria on those who would qualify.”
“I endorse anything that diverts people out of the penal system, but does it with due regard to public safety,” he said. “You don’t want people on the street that are a danger to the public.”
One of the mental health courts that has been operating in Greene County has the support of the Springfield office of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said Janet Plemmons, an office spokeswoman.
“People with mental illness need to be in treatment — not jail,” she said.
