It doesn’t take a psychiatrist to see that mental health issues are a contributing factor behind so many reported crime incidents. It stands to reason that any effective judicial-correctional system must address a perpetrator’s mental problems in order to successfully deter their future criminal activity and protect the public. This is the fundamental premise of the Ramsey County Mental Health Court (RHMHC).
The RCMHC came into existence in 2005, “when it became increasingly clear that persons with mental illness and co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse disorders were in need of more specialized and individualized jurisprudential approaches. “ The target population of the RCMHC is adult Ramsey County residents who have been charged with a crime that is related to a serious mental illness. Participation in the program is voluntary, with defendants being offered community mental health alternatives to “purely criminal sanction.” The program has benefited significantly from interns and volunteers, particularly attorneys from the firm of Briggs & Morgan.
As Ramsey County District Judge William Leary III recently told Minnesota Lawyer, “The program is doing extremely well [and] has met our expectations.” According to its website, “RCMHC graduates are less likely to be charged with a new offense, less likely to be convicted of a new offense, and less likely to spend time in jail than those in a comparison group of similarly situated offenders who did not participate in RCMHC.” Their recent press release states that only 15% percent of graduates had new charges after one year, compared with 60% of the comparison group. RCMHC is funded through the end of this year by the Minnesota Department of Human Services, Adult Mental Health Division. Unfortunately, Minnesota Lawyer reports that funding and continuation after that point are currently in jeopardy, unless new funding can be secured before that time. This would be a loss for our community, given RCMHC’s proven effectiveness in rehabilitating offenders and reducing recidivism.
Please see the RCMHC’s website for all this information and so much more.
