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FIT study finds Mental Health Court beneficial

Hometown News: Palm Bay - 8/11/2017

BREVARD COUNTY ? Prisons are neither considered to be rehabilitation centers, nor do they function as such, and this is especially true for inmates suffering from mental illnesses.

A recent study by the Florida Institute of Technology has found that Mental Health Court, an alternative to incarceration for inmates with mental illnesses, significantly diminishes recidivism up to three years after participation.

Assistant professor Dr. Julie Costopoulos, along with doctoral student Bethany Wellman, worked together to compile the data.

"Jail doesn't stop crimes by the mentally ill, treatment does," Dr. Costopoulos stated in a recent press release. "Yet jails and prisons are now the largest mental health treatment facilities in the United States."

"[The inmates] are offered [a choice]," Dr.

Costopoulos told Hometown News. "If there is an agreement between the state attorney and the public defender that they can be offered admission to the program, they are given the opportunity. [Inmates] have their right to refuse if they would prefer to go through traditional court and the possibility of incarceration."

Mental Health Court serves as an alternative to traditional imprisonment, where mentally ill inmates may not have access to resources that they need, such as medication or therapy.

"You're really looking at what we call ?severe clinical syndromes as the primary diagnosis of these individuals," Dr. Costopoulos said. "Because [the nature of the disorders] need to qualify, there has to be evidence of prior mental illness. I suspect that it's not new to them, the process of obtaining treatment and complying with psychiatric care."

According to officials, within the study "the most common diagnoses of defendants in the mental health court included 28 percent psychotic disorders (such as Schizophrenia), 46 percent mood disorders (such as bipolar disorder), and 20 percent mood disorders with psychotic symptoms (such as schizoaffective disorder)."

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the study was not only that Mental Health Court helps curb recidivism, but that when participants were re-arrested, their crimes were of a significantly lesser extent.

"One of the really neat findings was that of the 38 participants dismissed from the program for not completing the requirements, the more days that there were with the program even though they didn't complete it, the less severe were their offenses three years after they left the program." Dr. Costopoulos said. "So we found that even those that were dismissed from the program for whatever reason, [Mental Health Court] had some impact on their criminal behavior three years down the road.

"It's really surprising and I think really interesting that it could have such an impact on even people who ultimately can't complete it."