Steps are underway to establish a court in Hinds County for individuals who commit non-violent felonies and suffer from chronic mental health illness.
“We are the pilot jurisdiction,” said Faye Peterson, presiding judge for the 7th Circuit adult mental health treatment court.
“The hope and expectation are that we can work out the nuances and it can be adopted for other jurisdictions.”
The Supreme Court of Mississippi Administrative Office of Courts awarded the Hinds County mental health treatment court $250,000 for expenses related to the court. Annual funding will be based on the availability of funding from the legislative appropriations.
Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Mike Randolph advocated for mental health treatment court and a legislative commitment to it.
“We are blessed the Legislature put some money into this,” Peterson said. “I believe we can do this.”
Peterson, a former Hinds County district attorney who is serving her second term as a Hinds County Circuit Court judge, personally saw the need for mental health treatment court when she was an attorney in private practice and was often appointed to handle cases that involved individuals with mental disorders accused of committing felonies.
“They needed the community resources that are available,” she said.
Mental health treatment court is meant to identify and stabilize an individual during the pre-trial detention process, place the individual on supervision that matches the individual’s needs and then address the criminal justice issue. An individual must choose to participate in the court.
“The case manager would receive information that a person has a mental disorder and would go to the jail, take an assessment and see if they could do anything,” Peterson said.
A mental health coordinator and a case manager dedicated to the mental health treatment court are set to begin work in January. “I selected two individuals who understand the entire flow of the criminal justice system,” Peterson said.
A supervision officer must also be assigned to mental health treatment court, she said.
Only individuals accused of committing non-violent crimes will be eligible for mental health treatment court, she said.
Peterson expects the court will see individuals with a variety of illnesses that include schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety disorders.
The goal is to identify individuals early on who would benefit so they don’t have to stay in jail and determine what their needs might be such as medication or housing and work with community partners that can provide them, Peterson said.
The mental health treatment court would not interfere with law enforcement or the grand jury, she said.
Currently, an individual with a mental disorder who commits a crime in Hinds County is treated like anybody else in the system, Peterson said.
“Let’s say you broke into a building and went to sleep,” she said. “You commit two or three of those. When you wind up in court and you’re no longer eligible for bond. The police department tends to make a lot of those arrests. You get stuck in the jail waiting and it’s sometimes 10 months before you’re indicted.
“Attorneys have a hard time with these cases. A mental evaluation takes two years. You find people stuck for three years in jail.”
The mental health treatment court would not do away with the offense but could help an individual with mental illness with treatment and keep that person from sitting in jail while waiting to be indicted. In doing so, that would free up jail space for violent offenders, Peterson said.
The county would realize savings, too, if it did not have to house a non-violent offender and provide medication and assessment, she said.
“Our hope is finding resources, finding family and knowing programs that can help,” Peterson said. “It’s an all-hands on deck approach.”
With stabilization and other needs met, the hope is there would be less recidivism, she said.
Peterson said she will strive to ensure anyone in the mental health treatment court is treated with dignity and respect. “I can’t just look at a person in need and not say, ‘How can we make it better?’” she said.
California and Illinois have successful mental health treatment courts, and it can work in Mississippi, Peterson said.
Peterson said she spoke to the Hinds County Board of Supervisors and they backed the program. “They didn’t even let me finish my presentation,” she said, before endorsing the court.
Supervisor Robert Graham of District 1 said he knows from his years working in law enforcement there’s a need for the court.
“We have a tremendous need to assist those with mental health disorders,” he said.
