Mental Health Court Added to North Alabama Judicial Circuit – Alabama News

By BENJAMIN BULLARD, The Cullman Instances

CULLMAN, Ala. (AP) — A brand new psychological well being program is now part of a north Alabama judicial circuit, augmenting different applications already in place aimed toward addressing the underlying points which will contribute to nonviolent felony conduct.

Overseen by presiding Circuit Decide Greg Nicholas in partnership with different Cullman County judges and WellStone Behavioral Well being, Psychological Well being Courtroom launched not too long ago as a option to give eligible felony offenders an alternative choice to jail time and, hopefully, repeat encounters with legislation enforcement.

Individuals should apply to be thought of for this system, which extends them an accountable path to avoiding incarceration whereas providing them assist in receiving psychological well being providers regionally.

Cullman’s court docket system already holds specialised drug court docket and veterans court docket dockets for nonviolent offenders who present potential in benefiting from help with private points involving underlying substance abuse, psychological well being, and different circumstances which might contribute to felony exercise.

Those that enter the Psychological Well being Courtroom program should first plead responsible to their offenses, however in addition they have the chance to have their costs dismissed altogether by reaching court-prescribed milestones, which may embody common session with WellStone, over an agreed-upon time period.

Psychological well being providers by way of this system will probably be supplied by WellStone, and a participant’s monetary standing gained’t have an effect on their eligibility. Any defendant who enters this system will probably be accommodated no matter their capacity to pay for providers, because of funding help from the Alabama Division of Psychological Well being and a grant from the Substance Abuse and Psychological Well being Companies Administration, a department of the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies.

“The Psychological Well being Courtroom will assist make our neighborhood safer by decreasing the variety of crimes dedicated by people affected by psychological sickness,” Nicholas stated in a launch saying this system.

“With early identification of these people charged with nonviolent offenses who’re mentally unwell, acceptable psychological well being remedy could be supplied by way of a psychological well being court docket that displays compliance with an individualized remedy plan. With out remedy, an individual’s psychological well being situation will usually worsen, considerably rising the probability of additional involvement within the felony justice system,” he stated.

Addressing psychological well being points as a part of a defendant’s encounter with the felony justice system marks a self-imposed court docket reform measure that’s rising nationwide as an alternative choice to sending people with psychological sickness on to jail — a punishment that may show each pricey and ineffective for these whose underlying points persist.

The applications acknowledge that defendants affected by psychological sickness are overrepresented in jail populations, with knowledge from the Nationwide Alliance for Psychological Sickness indicating that two out of 5 incarcerated folks within the U.S. have a historical past of psychological sickness.

Nicholas stated the brand new program for folks accused of nonviolent crimes is separate from the civil dedication course of administered by way of probate court docket.

(Copyright 2022 The Related Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This materials might not be printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.)