Spokane County has implemented an expanded Mental Health Court.  This was made available thanks to legislation enacted in 2005, Senate Bill 5763, which allowed for a “Mental Health Sales Tax” of one tenth of one-percent to be used for the operation of new or expanded therapeutic court programs and to provide new or expanded mental health treatment or chemical dependency services.

• In the regular system, defendants often interact with a number of different defenders, prosecutors and judges.  Mentally ill offenders often spend unnecessary time in jail and, lacking access to mental health treatment services on release, often become repeat offenders and cycle through the justice system again and again.

• The Mental Health Therapeutic Court  (MHTC) represents an effort to increase effective cooperation between two systems that have traditionally not worked closely together—the mental health treatment system and the criminal justice system.  The project hopes to achieve the following outcomes for the mentally ill misdemeanant population:  faster case processing time, improved access to public mental health treatment services, improved well-being, and reduced recidivism.  An important outcome to be achieved from this program for the larger community is improved public safety.

The Mental Health Court itself has a dedicated staff, including Presiding Judge Sara Derr, Judicial Assistant (Susan Borrows), Clerk (JoAnne Gerke), Prosecuting Attorney (Mary Muramatsu), Defense Attorney (Cynthia Jaeger) and Probation Officers (County- Vivian Miller and City – John Dubois).  The Therapeutic Team consists of dedicated and collaborative team members:  Sandy Manfred, Program Manager; Barbara Folden, Mental Health Evaluator; a Mental Health Case Manager and Jane Stewart, Legal Office Assistant 2.

The Mental Health Court and Therapeutic Team work collaboratively with many other organizations such as the jail, treatment providers, DSHS, medical providers and other community stakeholders.

• MHTC established criteria for the Therapeutic “Track” and completed the MHTC Manual in August 2007.  An access database has been created to track outcomes and the program has been presented to several community stakeholders. 

• The MHTC was awarded a STOP Grant from the Washington State Supreme Court Gender and Justice Commission, which commenced in April, 2007.  The grant funds a .5 Domestic Violence Advocate in MH court and will also allow us to develop a state-wide legal advocacy manual outlining model guidelines and procedures for providing metal health court community-based legal advocacy for legal matters relating to domestic violence.

The Mental Health docket has served 217 defendants and processed 414 cases (535 charges) in January through June of 2007.  The Mental Health Court has 2 tracks:  The Criminal Track (on Tuesdays) and the Therapeutic Track (on Wednesdays):

Thanks to the support of the Bench, a Pre-Screening process was implemented to streamline the referral process into the Mental Health Court.

The process is a follows:

1. Fill out Pre-Screening Form
2. Fax Form to Probation (County:  477-2650; City:  622-5830)
3. Probation Faxes Forms to MHTC Team
4. Probation will research files, NCIC, etc.
5. The MHTC Team will research files and databases for MH Information.
6. The Team determines whether to accept of reject defendants being transferred into MH Court on Wednesday morning staffings.
7. If a defendant is accepted into the MH Court, the JA and Clerk will schedule them onto our docket.  If rejected, the defendant stays on the current alpha docket.
8. If a defendant is accepted into or rejected from MH Court, an order is written and sent to the parties.

The Mental Health Therapeutic Court maintains the premise that crimes committed by mentally ill persons are not simply a law enforcement or criminal justice problem, but a public health problem. 

We wish to thank everyone involved in the start up of this new court.  

If you have any questions about the Mental Health Therapeutic Court, please contact
Sandy Manfred at 477-2277
or
Judge Sara Derr at 477-2914

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