Source: (2014) Southern California Review of Law and Social Justice. 23:427-455.
Mental health courts (MHCs) are a promising forum for combating
the incarceration of individuals with mental illness. This Note explains
why MHCs are particularly suited for community reintegration of those
suffering from severe mental illness, explores some of the more successful
community treatment programs to which MHCs can link severely
mentally ill persons who are accused of crimes, and models a restorative
justice program for integration into MHCs. The last of these is the most
controversial, as it requires that offenders with mental illness and the
victims of their crimes both be treated as victims. While few to none have
tested the effectiveness of a restorative justice approach specifically
intended to address the crimes of offenders with mental illness, this Note
considers some of the issues likely to arise in implementing such an
approach and the best means of addressing them. (author’s abstract)
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