The National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts' Responses to Mental Illness, which is co-chaired by Vermont Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Reiber and New York Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks, released a report on Tuesday with its recommendations based on two years of studying state court systems.
The report's recommendations include diverting individuals with mental illnesses to treatment, reforming the competency to stand trial system, changing civil commitment laws, training judges and court professionals on trauma and behavioral health and collecting data on cases involving individuals with mental illnesses.
Marks said during a virtual event Tuesday that states wanting to implement the task force's recommendations should start by creating their own task forces or commissions with members from all three branches of state government.
"This is not a problem that the courts can solve on their own," he said.
According to the task force's report, courts are deeply impacted by people with mental illnesses and often serve as facilitators for people to get treatment.
The report highlighted research from the Treatment Advocacy Center, a nonprofit that aims to eliminate barriers to treating severe mental illnesses, finding that people with mental illnesses in the U.S. are 10 times more likely to end up in prison or jail than in treatment.
In turn, more than 70% of people in American jails and prisons have at least one diagnosed mental illness or substance-use disorder, or both, according to the center.
Task force member and Multnomah County, Oregon, mental health court Judge Nan Waller said during the virtual event that the people who end up in her court often feel unwanted, and sometimes the only door left open to them is one leading to jail.
"Across the country, we know that our jails are often our largest de facto mental health institutions and emergency rooms are overbooked, neither can continue to be the answer to the crises that we are facing in our communities," Judge Waller said.
The task force's recommendations come at a time when states are trying to make it easier to place people with severe mental illnesses in treatment.
Earlier this year, California lawmakers passed novel legislation to implement CARE courts — community assistance, recovery and empowerment courts — where people can petition to have treatment ordered for adults who have schizophrenia or another psychotic disorder and lack decision-making capacity.
In Georgia, lawmakers eliminated a requirement that a person must present imminent harm to another person before that person can be involuntarily committed to either inpatient or assisted outpatient treatment.
In Utah, legislators passed a bill that gives judges the option of involuntarily placing individuals who have severe mental illness into assisted outpatient treatment and extends the time that people can be involuntarily held for mental health evaluation up to 72 hours.
--Editing by Nicole Bleier.
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