Court tries therapy, Palmer plans 'mental-health' court

JOHN DAVIDSON/Frontiersman reporter

PALMER -- Next month, Palmer District Court will follow the lead of courts nationwide when it introduces a so-called mental-health, or "therapeutic," court for offenders who suffer from mental illness and substance-abuse problems.

In addition to expanding the court schedule to include nights and weekends in January, Palmer District Court will introduce what is officially called the Coordinated Resources Project, as part of an effort to alleviate recidivism and reduce the overall number of misdemeanor offenses.

From fiscal year 2004 to 2005, Palmer District Court saw a 30-percent increase in the number of criminal filings -- the largest increase the court has ever seen, District Court Administrator Wendy Lyford said.

Robyn Johnson, coordinator of the therapeutic courts program for the Alaska Court System, said mental-health court is a different approach to handling crime. Johnson said the idea is to get at the root problem behind the offense, instead of just punishing the offense itself, time after time.

For example, if the offense is driving under the influence, the problem is likely alcoholism. Therapeutic courts are designed to address the problem, not just the offense, Johnson said, and focus on long-term rehabilitation and treatment rather than short-term punishment, which often results in repeat offenses and greater strains on the court and prison systems.

Based on this principle, Palmer District Court is planning to start a dual-diagnosis mental disorders court next month. The target population for this court will be misdemeanor offenders with a mental illness and substance-abuse problems, Johnson said.

"It's an alternative method to deal with cases. The traditional method is that convicts go to jail, do their time, and then are free." Johnson said. "In therapeutic court, the defendant is charged with a crime, but is interested in looking at the underlying issue and wants an opportunity to change and turn their life around; it's voluntary, they must express interest and then they are assessed to determine if their case is appropriate."

In a mental-health court, defendants voluntarily plead guilty or no contest and sentencing is held off while they go through a treatment program under the supervision of a case coordinator and a judge. If they complete the program, usually in about 18 months, up to 50 percent of their fines can be forgiven and up to 75 percent of jail time can also be forgiven.

"The approach is very different because the goal is to have a clean and sober person and a productive member of community when the program is complete," Johnson said.

Treatment programs are highly structured in therapeutic courts, with both incentives and sanctions built in. If a participant misses an AA meeting, for example, he might spend a weekend in jail.

Generally, Johnson said, those going through a treatment program will stay on house arrest at the beginning, under electronic monitoring. Eventually, they will be approved to leave for treatment and, as they progress, can get off electronic monitoring or maybe get approved to go to work and then go home.

This approach, while it has been shown to reduce the number of repeat offenders, also costs less, Johnson said.

"The cost of incarceration is $114 per day. In this program, if people are at home, they are paying for that themselves," Johnson said. "There are expenses for treatment, but nationally the ratio is that for every $1 spent in therapeutic court, $10 is saved in other costs."

However, noncompliance results in immediate sanctions, Johnson said, and the judge is highly involved at all stages of treatment. The court is structured on a team approach, with the judge and prosecuting and defense attorneys filling nontraditional roles.

"The single most important thing is the relationship the participants have with the judge and the workers," Johnson said. "Encouragement or rebuke from a judge can be a very effective part of a person's treatment."

Palmer District Court has hired a program manager for mental-health court and soon will hire a case coordinator for the program, which will be based on the Anchorage model.

District Court Judges William Estelle and Greg Heath will handle the new mental-health court, which will be a small part of their caseload beginning next month, Lyford said.

The first therapeutic courts were drug courts started in Florida in 1989. The Anchorage court system opened the state's first therapeutic courts in July 1998, one of the first four of those courts in the country. In the six years since, Johnson said Anchorage has significantly reduced the number of repeat offenders.

"There are very different outcomes," Johnson said. "What happens is that as people become clean and sober, they reconnect with loved ones, which helps them to become productive members of society."

Contact John Davidson at john.davidson@frontiersman.com.