Mental Health Leadership Initiative

The Council of State Governments Justice Center announced February 19, 2007 (link to Press Release) that Texas’s Court of Criminal Appeals has been selected to participate in the Chief Justices’ Criminal Justice / Mental Health Leadership Initiative. This is a national project designed to assist state supreme court chief justices in guiding efforts in their state to improve the response to people with mental illnesses in the criminal justice system. The Honorable Sharon Keller, Presiding Judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals, and Chair of the Task Force on Indigent Defense, has created a Mental Health Task Force to address problems involving people with mental illness who are in the criminal justice system. She applied to the Council of State Governments for outside funding and technical assistance for the committee.

According to a 2006 report by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, nearly a quarter of both state prisoners and jail inmates who reported they had a mental health problem had served three or more sentences prior to incarceration. This makes them familiar faces in our nation’s courtrooms. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice reports that 30% percent of the people incarcerated in the state have a prior service history with the public mental health system. The number of people with mental illness appearing in criminal courts, and the frequency with which these people cycle through our prisons and jails, has significant implications for the administration of our judicial system.

In Texas, every jail inmate is cross-referenced with the state’s mental health database. But unfortunately, there is no formal system to notify the courts of a defendant’s mental health disorder. As a result of this information gap, a defendant who might be eligible for specialized supervision and treatment may be sentenced instead to incarceration. The Mental Health Task Force will identify gaps in procedural, regulatory, and statutory provisions that contribute to this and other problems, and make recommendations toward corrective action.

The mental health task force members (in bold) are, from right to left: Sharon Keller, Presiding Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals and Chair of the Task Force on Indigent Defense; Dee Wilson, Director, Texas Correctional Office on Offenders with Medical or Mental Impairments; Dr. Tony Fabelo (consultant); John Bradley, Williamson County District Attorney; Mary Anne Wiley, Deputy General Counsel, Office of the Governor; Lisa Kaufman, General Counsel to Robert Duncan, State Senator; Jim Bethke, Director, Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense; Jason Bryl, Council of State Governments;
Mike Maples, Texas Department of State Health Services, Director Mental Health/Substance Abuse; and David Gutierrez, Lubbock County Sheriff.

So far, the Mental Health Task Force has had five meetings:
March 6, 2007 Austin, Texas
March 29, 2007 Austin, Texas
September 21, 2007 Houston, Texas
October 23, 2007 Lubbock, Texas
December 12, 2007 Austin, Texas