It’s a sad, familiar story: The mentally ill individual who falls into a cycle of crime, incarcerated because there is no better option.
But Cobb County is creating an alternative: An accountability program for the mentally ill.
Mentally ill defendants can apply to the program — called mental health court — as a means to stay out of jail. The catch? They will be required to take their medication, undergo drug testing and attend counseling and doctor’s appointments. If they don’t, they answer to a judge.
More specifically, they’ll answer to Judge Mary Staley.
“There are people who need punishment,” Staley said. “But there are also people who need the opportunity to correct themselves.”
Mental health court is for the latter. Participants would likely be required to undergo weekly drug testing and meetings with Staley and would be held accountable for missed appointments.
Kristie Garrett, the program coordinator, said the judge takes on a parental role.
“The key piece here is our name: We’re called ‘accountability court,’” she said. “We’re not doing any rocket science… we’re just holding them accountable.”
The idea is to offer participants the structure and guidelines they need to get and stay healthy, rather than throw them in jail. It isn’t a new idea — more than 10 other court circuits in Georgia have implemented a mental health court for adult felonies.
It’s a program Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds has wanted for some time. He is pleased with the success of drug court — a similar program for drug addicts that has been in place for 10 years —and has high expectations.
“Our drug court is stringent, it’s tough,” he said. “If you don’t do what you’re supposed to do, you’re sanctioned. I have no reason to believe that mental health court will be anything but the same.”
Staley, Garrett and others have been working on plans for mental health court since November, but finally got the necessary funding Monday night when the Cobb Board of Commissioners voted 3-2 to accept a state grant. At this point, though, the mental health court in Cobb is merely a two-month pilot program.
The $53,615 grant must be used by the end of the fiscal year, June 30. Most of the grant money goes toward paying a case manager, who will track each individual participant, said Garrett. The funds also cover drug testing and the participants’ counseling and medical appointments.
Cobb has applied for a fiscal year 2014 grant and will find out whether they’ve been approved in late May or early June.
County commissioner Bob Ott wanted to wait until then to decide whether to start the program. He’s worried the county will launch mental health court only to find out there isn’t funding to continue it.
He also worries about how much money the county might have to chip in to make the program viable down the road.
“I don’t think it’s been fully vetted from the financial aspect, that we have a true understanding of exactly what the cost is going to be,” he said. “Before you step over the edge, why would you not want to know exactly what the details are going to be?”
But at Monday night’s meeting chairman Tim Lee said he saw no harm in trying.
That was music to Kim Keheley Frye’s ears. She’s an attorney in Marietta that came to the meeting to support mental health court.
“You’d be amazed at how much this one particular issue is woven through so many of my clients,” she said. “I am grateful for an alternative to prison and an alternative to a possible conviction.”
Mental health court is a service, she said, for these truly are the least, the lost and the lonely.
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