Tulsa mental health court overwhelmed

Published: July 8, 2008

TULSA -- Tulsa County's Mental Health Court is having to deny services to some nonviolent but mentally ill criminal defendants because demand is exceeding the court's ability to provide them.

As of July 1, about a year after launching operations, the therapeutic court had 38 active participants. About three times that many defendants who were referred to the program have been declined admission for a variety of reasons.

The specialized court received state funding to fit in a caseload of 50 people.

Mental Health Court provides an alternative to incarceration, with an emphasis on monitoring and accountability, for criminal offenders who have been diagnosed with serious mental illnesses.

Participation is voluntary, and people who want in can't claim that they are innocent. Prosecutors have veto authority to keep a candidate from being admitted.

At the time of their admission into the program, Mental Health Court participants have faced an assortment of charges, such as drug possession, larceny, unauthorized use of a vehicle, burglary, driving under the influence of alcohol, false impersonation, malicious injury to property and obstructing an officer.

Charges involving certain violent crimes are grounds for automatic exclusion, but the court is treating some defendants who are charged with assault and battery, including a couple who are charged with assault and battery on a police officer.

Defense lawyer Larry Edwards, who has two clients in Mental Health Court, said the program provides additional treatment they couldn't get in another court.

He thinks court officials, in deciding whom to let in, are eliminating people with aggressive tendencies who could benefit from the services available.

"So many people with aggressive behavior will clearly have a mental health issue," Edwards said.

The regimen consists of four phases - orientation and engagement, stabilization, building independence, and transition.

The program involves mandatory mental health treatment, regular and frequent courtroom appearances, medication compliance and drug testing. It is set up to require at least 13 months to complete.

Tulsa County's Mental Health Court has not yet had its first graduate. Three defendants have been terminated from the program — two who were sent to prison and one who was transferred to Drug Court, Assistant District Attorney Kim Hall said.

Defendants who don't comply with the programs rules can face sanctions that include judicial admonishment, increased drug testing, community service and jail stints.

The primary diagnoses of program participants are bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, clinical depression and bipolar disorder with psychosis. Almost all participants have a co-occurring substance abuse disorder, records show.

People with a mental health issue often self-medicate in an effort to cope, said District Judge Rebecca Nightingale, who has a supervisory role over the court's progress.

Rose Ewing, who has worked on multiple specialized courts for the Community Service Council of Greater Tulsa, said getting clients clean and sober doesn't ensure that everything is going to be just fine. It is a lifelong condition, Ewing said.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

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