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Evaluating the efficiency and community safety goals of the Broward County Mental Health Court
Author(s) -
Christy Annette,
Poythress Norman G.,
Boothroyd Roger A.,
Petrila John,
Mehra Shabnam
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
behavioral sciences and the law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.649
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1099-0798
pISSN - 0735-3936
DOI - 10.1002/bsl.647
Subject(s) - mental health , mental illness , occupational safety and health , economic justice , criminal justice , medicine , psychiatry , psychology , criminology , political science , law , pathology
Mental health courts have developed as one response to persons with mental illness who are involved with the criminal justice system. This study investigated the efficiency and safety goals of one such court in Broward County, FL. Mental health court (MHC) clients spent significantly fewer days in jail for the index arrest associated with study enrollment than a comparison group. MHC clients had similar survival time to re‐arrest up to one year after study enrollment. MHC clients did not significantly differ from the comparison group in self‐reported aggressive acts over an 8 month follow‐up period, while they did self‐report significantly fewer acts of violence than the comparison group at the 8 month follow‐up. These findings suggest that some of the benefits associated with the MHC reported in prior studies were not achieved at the expense of efficiency and safety. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.