Bill would establish state’s first mental health court

Stacy J. Willis

Friday, March 23, 2001 | 5:23 a.m.

Pops doesn't want to move.

He thinks he owns this property -- a vacant lot in a Las Vegas industrial area. He's a big black man with a beard and a knit hat, and he is sitting in the pouring rain, leaning against a chain-link fence, partially sheltered by a sheet of plastic stretched over him.

"I got ownership," he says in a soft mumble. "The CIA gave me the prognosis in Detroit."

Raindrops splash off the fence post and hit his cheeks. Cars go by. A pile of garbage lies at his feet. He's been here more than two years.

Pops -- a mentally ill homeless man -- could be arrested and sent to jail, given a court hearing, possibly be sent to University Medical Center and the state psychiatric facility. But odds are he would be back on his chosen corner within a few weeks, having failed to follow through with treatment.

Police, jailers, emergency-room personnel -- even ambulance drivers -- have spoken out about the community's need to break the cycle of mentally ill people rotating through the system.

Now judges may jump in to help find a solution.

A bill that would establish the state's first mental health court, in Washoe County, is working its way through the Legislature this spring. And in Clark County judges' chambers, talk of establishing a similar program is circulating.

"There are a lot of mentally ill people that just get cycled through our courts and jails," Las Vegas Municipal Judge Bert Brown said. "It's really not doing anybody any good."

In 1998 nearly 300,000 mentally ill were incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails -- four times as many as in state mental hospitals throughout the nation. Fourteen percent of Nevada's prison population is mentally ill, according to the state health division.

A significant portion of the mentally ill population coursing through civic institutions is homeless -- about 33 percent of U.S. homeless people are seriously mentally ill, according to the Treatment Advocacy Center in Arlington, Va. By that standard, more than 2,500 of Las Vegas's homeless are mentally ill.

"We've started looking at the idea of a mental health court to help with the problem," Brown said. "What we've got with mentally ill people is vagrant issues, trespassing, indecent behavior, things like that. We need some kind of system in place to address their specific situation."

The nation's first mental health court was established in Broward County, Fla., in 1999, and fewer than a dozen have since been established in other U.S. communities.

The court would be a voluntary alternative to the regular court system and, like drug courts, would receive defendants from all area jurisdictions. Participating judges and public defenders would receive special training in mental health. Nonviolent offenders would be sentenced to out-patient or in-patient mental health programs rather than jail.

The core idea is that the court would provide defendants with incentive to stay in treatment programs.

In a preliminary report about the court, Brown writes, "there is always a 'hook' involved for the defendant -- either a reduced sentence, dismissal of the case or, of primary interest to the homeless population, indoor living accommodations with meals."

Advocates of the mental health court say that continued judicial monitoring of mentally ill offenders would keep repeat offenders from filling up other courts and jails -- and unload the burden on emergency rooms, ambulances and police who often end up handling the untreated mentally ill.

Ideally it also would reduce homelessness, as people received mental health care and became more functional.

Kathy Hass, who accompanied her mentally ill friend Danny through the Justice Court system on a trespassing charge, said a mental health court is long overdue.

"The judge we dealt with didn't seem to know anything about mental illness. (The judge) didn't understand that Danny couldn't just control his behavior, he needed help. Someone needs to see that treating (the mentally ill) like criminals will just keep them going through the system," Hass said. But others wonder whether the courts, rather than the state mental health system, should be responsible for monitoring the mentally ill.

"At first when we heard of this idea, some of us thought, 'Is this the role of judges? Are we social workers? Or do we really just need more caseworkers in the mental health system?' " District Judge William Voy said.

"Probably we need some kind of partnership between the courts and the counties and the mental health system. We need something to streamline it. Otherwise maybe we should just spend money on more mental health case managers," Voy said.

The state system has a client waiting list for case managers that has about 100 names, and officials report hiring difficulties.

Former President Clinton signed America's Law Enforcement and Mental Health Project Act in 2000 that would establish 100 mental health courts around the country. However, there is no funding yet, according to Nevada's Administrative Office of the Courts.

"We're keeping our eyes on that," Voy said. "If money becomes available, that would make this easier."

Senate Bill 366, sponsored by Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, and backed by Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, would allot more than $1 million to set up the Washoe court, pay three additional caseworkers to help monitor defendants and pay a defense attorney.

Capitol-watchers say the chance that the bill will receive an appropriation is slim.

"The most underfunded area in this state is not education, it's human services," Leslie said. "It's horribly underfunded."

Judge Peter Breen in Washoe County, a supporter SB366, said there are two major hurdles to establishing the court.

"Money is the first. It's a lot more expensive to effectively deal with clients than shuffle them through," Breen said.

"And the second hurdle is the lack of housing in the communities for the mentally ill. And that is really the same issue: money for mental health services."