TPC Journal V7, Issue 3 - FULL ISSUE

251 Toni O. Davis, Keith A. Cates Mental Health Counseling and Specialty Courts Specialty courts, such as mental health courts, drug courts, and veterans treatment courts, were developed with the intention of reducing recidivism and obtaining better outcomes for participants selected from the particular populations served by each court. Efforts to improve the public good have produced a reimagining of the justice system with a focus on therapeutic jurisprudence and restorative justice. Counselors contract with the courts to provide therapeutic services that assist the courts in supplementing the more traditional court functions of punishment, corrections, and public safety. Mental health clinicians can fulfill pivotal roles in these courts as advocates, educators, and clinical technicians. This paper provides an introduction into specialty courts for counselors considering provision of clinical services in these still-developing areas. Keywords : specialty courts, mental health courts, drug courts, veterans treatment courts, mental health counseling In 1963, the passage of the Community Mental Health Centers Act (Feldman, 2003) led to the closing of most state psychiatric hospitals and the provision for providing services at the community level. However, the same act had the unintentional result of transferring patients with severe mental illness from psychiatric hospitals into jails and prisons (Farmer et al., 2017; Hnatow, 2015; Shenson, Dubler, & Michaels, 1990; Torrey et al., 2014). More recently, the war on drugs has exacerbated the problem of overcrowding in penal and justice systems ill-equipped to provide therapeutic services for these individuals (Hafemeister & George, 2012; Harvard Law Review, 1998; Torrey, 1997; Walsh & Holt, 1999). This predicament has led to the Cook County jail in Illinois being labeled as the country’s largest mental health institution (Hill, 2016). In order to facilitate greater efficiency and effectiveness in the justice system for the populations encountered, specialty courts act to counter a system that historically has depersonalized individuals (Kleinfeld, 2016). Specialty courts identify common issues faced by particular populations and address the underlying causes of criminogenic behavior by focusing on the individual to produce better outcomes. Although mental health professionals fulfill pivotal roles in these courts, many counselors are unfamiliar with specialty courts. The purpose of this paper is to describe the specialty court movement and the roles of counselors within it. The Justice System—Old and New The justice system in America has traditionally been one of punitive action—to punish offenders and deter the tempted. Since the 1950s, America’s policies targeting illicit drug use have resulted in a large population of low-level offenders serving long, mandatory-minimum sentences, often with inadequate support and resulting in repeated contact with the traditional criminal justice system (Haley, 2016; Kupers, 2015). Between 1968 and 1978, the number of patients in state mental hospitals fell 64%, while the census in state prisons rose 65% (Steadman, Monahan, Duffee, & Hartstone, 1984). In 2012, the number of prisoners diagnosed with mental illness exceeded 352,000, more than 10 times the number in state The Professional Counselor Volume 7, Issue 3, Pages 251–258 http://tpcjournal.nbcc.org © 2017 NBCC, Inc. and Affiliates doi:10.15241/tod.7.3.251 Toni O. Davis is a graduate student at Troy University. Keith A. Cates, NCC, is an associate professor at Troy University. Correspondence can be addressed to Toni Davis, #368 Hawkins Hall, Troy University, Troy, AL 36082, badaxe824@yahoo.com .