'FACT' teams aim to keep people with mental illness out of jail

Like the Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams that help seriously mentally ill people avoid costly long-term hospital stays, Forensic Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) teams try to help the same population avoid jail also. By providing intensive case management to avoid the pitfalls that lead to criminal charges, and connecting people living in the community with needed services, these teams have shown early indications that their patients spend less time in both jails and hospitals. They are more expensive than outpatient clinics, but in the long run may be cheaper than hospitals and jails.

An array of services in Pima County, Arizona, greets hundreds of people getting released early from jail or helps keep them out of jail in the first place. By providing drug treatment, housing, job assistance, and other help that people need instead of incarceration, the county's Criminal Justice Reform Unit and Jail Population Review Committee saved the county $2 million in jail costs over just part of 2020. Drug use also declined and officials hope to see longer-range benefits in lower recidivism.

Manhattan Mental Health Court was created in 2011 to divert felony criminal cases to treatment, and away from prison, for people in need of mental health treatment. But few people with serious mental illness ever benefit from it. Too few defense lawyers know to request the intervention or do it correctly. Prosecutors act as gatekeepers in deciding who gets the help, and many do not see its value. And, once cases are admitted to the court, they can sometimes take years to be resolved. Covid restrictions on the courts have only aggravated these problems.

After San Joaquin County adopted a slew of criminal justice reforms, crime dropped by 20 percent, the lowest number in a decade. One of the things that was implemented were speciality courts aimed at decreasing arrest time and helping “former prisoners find jobs, housing and treatment for mental health and addiction problems.” Other measures include ending cash bail and racial bias training. “Crime has always been issue No. 1, but the narrative in this city is one about being a second chance city.”

For offenders with a co-occurring mental health disorder, the regular prison system is not viewed as an optimal environment. A mental health court would help lower recidivism and increase the offender's quality of life by treating their mental health issues in order to focus on the underlying issue contributing to the criminal acts.

The rampant opioid epidemic tearing through communities across the United States is exacerbated by a rigid court system that fails to address individual needs and a severe lack of comprehensive treatment options, even for those who want to get clean. Family Treatment Court, like the one in Chautauqua County, N.Y., provides parents who are addicts an innovative intervention program that includes a broad range of custom-tailored services to permanently quit their drug use and keep their families together.

Connecticut is attempting to reduce prison recidivism by changing parole practices. Changes to the system are allowing parole officers to foster relationships with parolees and counsel them as people, not as cases.

Assertive community treatment teams working through outreach-centered programs in Maricopa County have become an industry standard for treating those with persistent and severe mental illnesses who have recently been incarcerated. They provide a long-term approach, aiming to halt a cycle of incarceration and hospitalization by focusing on underlying issues such as what caused the police interaction and incarceration.

A number of state corrections departments are using virtual reality to teach inmates a range of basic skills they might've missed the chance to acquire while incarcerated. The VR programs have helped reduce aggressive behavior, facilitate empathy with victims, and drop recidivism rates. A short-term pilot initiative in Alaska, for example, incorporated mindfulness techniques through VR that resulted in decreased reports of depressive or anxious feelings and fewer disciplinary write-ups.

White Mountain Restorative Justice offers juvenile and adult court diversion and victim-offender mediation programs. WMRJ aims to guide first-time low-level offenders through restorative justice processes to hold offenders accountable, repair the harm caused by crime, and prevent reoffences.