Cleveland-area program works with the mentally ill

The cost of supervising and medicating the mentally ill doubles the prison costs.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- A program in Cuyahoga County courts, started in response to concerns mirrored in the justice system nationwide, aims to better understand and deal more efficiently with people who are mentally ill.
The county and several other communities across Ohio have established mental health courts to specifically handle such defendants. In the Cleveland-area program, some municipal and common pleas judges oversee mental health cases and try to place defendants with psychological problems into court-supervised treatment programs.
"We're not dealing with a high population of people with really good, secure home lives," Municipal Judge Kathleen Keough said. "We get people whose life has been in upheaval for years and who don't know any of their rights. No stability. Nobody really to count on."
In the past, those awaiting trial who showed signs of mental illnesses, such as depression or schizophrenia, tended to stay in jail two to three times longer than others while officials determined if they were competent to stand trial. Because those people might need close supervision and daily medications, the cost of keeping them behind bars can be as much as double that for others.
How this began
The program in Cuyahoga County sprang from an initiative started three years ago to try to better handle mentally ill defendants.
"The goal is to have a place where police can bring someone who needs evaluation or stabilization so they don't languish in jail," said Shaker Heights Municipal Judge K.J. Montgomery, who heads the initiative.
Recent studies indicate that mental disorders affect one of every four adults in the United States. Yet a recent U.S. Department of Justice study found that more than half the inmates in the nation's prisons and jails have mental health problems.
Part of that can be traced to fewer psychiatric hospitals, said Dr. Philip J. Resnick, director of forensic psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University. In 1960, more than 550,000 people were in psychiatric hospitals throughout the country, Resnick said. With the closing of many of the hospitals, that number has dropped to about 70,000.
Special courts
The Bureau of Justice Assistance, part of the U.S. Justice Department, helps to administer the federal government's Mental Health Courts Program. The program funds projects that seek to improve the way courts help adults with mental disabilities or illnesses. Mental health courts generally deal with nonviolent offenders.
More than 150 of these courts exist and more are being planned, according to the bureau's Web site.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Mary Jane Boyle, one of five Cuyahoga County judges overseeing cases with mentally ill defendants, said most crimes committed by the mentally ill happen when the person is not taking medications.
Corey Miller, a coordinator for Recovery Resources, a nonprofit group that provides mental health programs and services throughout Northeast Ohio, said many of the inmates tell him they got into trouble either because they cannot afford to pay for their medications or they find it easier to cope with their illnesses by turning to drugs or alcohol.
Keough said the mental health dockets give defendants a chance to get help.
"Sometimes the best thing to happen to them," she said, "is when they get into court."