Mental-health court for re-entering prisoners 'long overdue'

City and state officials yesterday announced the launch of a special mental-health court that is intended to reduce recidivism by helping mentally ill prison inmates transition back to society.

Mayor Nutter praised the program as another in a long list of innovative and successful First Judicial District specialty courts, which also include Drug Court, DUI Court and the former Eagles Court at Veterans Stadium.

"Some folks make some bad decisions or have challenges in their lives and find themselves in the criminal justice system," Nutter said. "That doesn't mean that they don't need and deserve treatment with the utmost dignity and respect."

Participants will be assigned a parole officer and given a course of behavioral and mental-health treatment upon their release from prison.

There are about a dozen other mental-health courts in the state, but Philadelphia's is the first to focus on inmates' re-entry into the community.

Sheila Woods-Skipper, the Common Pleas Criminal Supervising judge, said that the court aims to treat the underlying problems afflicting mentally ill offenders in hopes of keeping them out of the criminal justice system.

"We want to stop the revolving door of recidivism," said Woods-Skipper, who will preside over the new court.

To enter the program, inmates must meet certain requirements that include eligibility for Medicaid, being deemed medically suited for the program and having no more than five previous incarcerations. Violent offenders will not be considered for the program.

"Carefully screened mentally ill offenders will enter the program and will receive intensive mental-health treatment and counseling, along with intensive court supervision," Woods-Skipper said.

Treatment plans for the offenders will be determined on an individual basis by the Department of Behavioral Health and Mental Retardation Services' Philadelphia Forensic Assertive Community Treatment Team.

Participants must follow the rules of their parole and will be required to adhere to their treatment plans. Offenders will be under strict court supervision and will be required to appear in court before Woods-Skipper at various points during their treatment.

For many who spoke yesterday after the announcement at the Criminal Justice Center, the Mental Health Court is a long overdue response to mental illness in the criminal-justice system.

State Supreme Court Justice Seamus P. McCaffery and District Attorney Lynne Abraham likened the prevalence of mental illness in today's prisons to that of state-run mental hospitals of the 1950s.

"Right now, according to our estimates, over 30 percent of the people currently incarcerated in our jails are there because they suffer from mental illness," McCaffery said.

"There are around 1,900 inmates in our prison system who could be benefiting from this," Abraham said. *