Fact Sheet# 8
Post-Adjudication Diversion
Court-Based Diversion Initiatives
Cases Nathaniel Project, New York City
Population Served: Prison-bound individuals with severe mental illnesses
indicted on a felony charge in Manhattan Supreme Court or in violation of parole
or probation and who are in need of ongoing psychiatric treatment and supportive
services to function in the community.
Program Description: The Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment
Services (CASES) runs the Nathaniel Project, offering an alternative to incarceration
for felony offenders with serious mental illnesses. The project is designed
to promote public safety, help people with mental illnesses to live productive,
law-abiding lives in the community and provide cost-savings.
Candidates undergo a multi-step screening process to assess their current situation,
their psychiatric and criminal history, and their potential for success in the
program. An assessment is made as to whether the individual will be able to
make good use of the program and has the motivation to participate voluntarily
in treatment, and to determine the level of support required to return to the
community. The project gathers information from potential clients' families
and other sources and develops individualized service plans addressing housing,
mental health and other service needs, including benefit issues.
The project works with judges, prosecutors and defense counsel to have individuals
placed in the program for two years in lieu of a longer prison term. Staff accompany
individuals on their court visits throughout their time in the program and prepare
progress reports for the court. Client progress is monitored and the project
reports to the judges on each individual's progress or setbacks.
Individuals in the program have a long history of falling out of treatment;
most have been homeless upon arrest. Most also have co-occurring substance abuse
problems. They require a great deal of outreach and follow-up. The project first
places participants in supervised transitional housing and then moves them into
longer-term supervised or supported housing. Comprehensive case management is
then furnished, providing intensive supervision and support. Staff assist participants
in obtaining medication and community services (clinic and day treatment, psychosocial
clubhouse, vocational training and job placement, supportive housing and benefits)
and advocate for clients with providers. Crisis services are available 24 hours
a day, seven days a week. Case managers are clinically trained professionals
with caseloads of only 10-12 individuals.
A high level of intensive services is furnished during the first critical weeks,
including at least three weekly intensive case management visits. For many,
intensity declines over time; by the end of the first year many participants
receive only one case management visit per week.
Funding: City of New York mental health authority and grants from foundations.
Costs: Costs per client are $13,000 a year.
Outcomes: The program is approaching the end of its second year. It
has served 41 individuals, and only five have been re-arrested (four for minor
misdemeanors and one for a drug felony). Six have dropped out.
Pretrial Diversion, Hamilton County, Ohio
Population Served: Individuals with a mental illness charged with misdemeanors
or felonies who are determined by a pretrial services program to be suitable
candidates for community living
Description: Following arrest, each detainee is screened by the pretrial
services. A defense attorney is assigned as soon as it is determined that a
defendant may have a mental illness, so that counsel may consult with the defendant
before a clinical assessment is conducted by clinicians attached to the court's
psychiatric clinic.
Those with mental illnesses have their cases placed on a special Mental Health
Arraignment Docket, held the afternoon after arrest to avoid a continued stay
in jail. The results of the assessment are presented to the judge who decides
on pretrial release and defendants have the opportunity to plead at this hearing.
Court mental health staff are available to link defendants with support services
upon release.
Identification of Mental Health System Clients, Connecticut
An arraignment court-based diversion program is available in Hartford, Bridgeport,
Stamford, New Haven, New London and Norwich. Through the Connecticut mental
health authority, mental health clinicians conduct assessments of defendants
with mental illnesses prior to their initial appearance in court. These clinicians
are employed by the mental health system and advocate for diversion. They provide
a suggested treatment plan but do not disclose to the court the nature of an
individual's illness or diagnosis. Case managers maintain contact with the individual
from arraignment to disposition of charges. Following disposition, case management
is referred within the agency or to another community-based outpatient provider.
In addition, mental health centers in Connecticut receive from the local jail
a list of all people just arrested. These names are cross-referenced with the
mental health data base to identify those currently in the mental health system.
Mental health staff then interview each of the defendants on their rolls and,
in coordination with the public defender and pretrial services offices, develop
a plan for release, which is submitted to the court.
Information for Defenders, GA
Information on alternatives to incarceration for people with mental illnesses
is catalogued by the Georgia Indigent Defense Counsel, which serves as an information
resource center for defense attorneys throughout the state. The counsel offers
seminars and publications addressing the special needs of clients with mental
illnesses for judges and defense attorneys. Counsel staff is also available
to defense counsel for telephone consultation on individual cases.
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