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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR

Powdrell-Culbert

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/19/07

HB

148

SHORT TITLE

13

th

District Mental Health Court

SB

ANALYST Sanchez

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$250.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

Relates to

SB 206, 1

st

Judicial District Mental Health Court

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Administrative Office of the Court

13

th

Judicial District Court

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 148 appropriates $250,000 from the general fund for the purpose of establishing and

operating an adult mental health court program in the thirteenth judicial district. $250,000 would

be appropriated to the thirteenth judicial district for salary and benefits of staff, contractual

services for treatment costs; and to fund other operating costs. Any unexpended or

unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2008 shall revert to the general fund.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

Of the $250,000 appropriation, $236,300 is recurring for personal services and benefits for a

program manager and court clinician 2 (2 FTEs), contractual services for treatment costs, and

operating costs for this program. This appropriation increases the budget of the thirteenth

judicial district court.

House Bill 148 – Page

2

The cost of incarcerating mentally ill offenders in jail will be reduced substantially due to their

earlier release from jail and effective use of existing resources in the community. The costs of

treatment while inmates are incarcerated will be avoided which, while not effecting the court

budget, will be a cost avoidance for the counties, since Medicare/Medicaid benefits stop while

people are incarcerated.

The state will likely avoid future costs as the program successfully serves more clients.

Nationally, 16% of people that are in jail have a serious mental illness. Since there are

approximately 150 state prisoners incarcerated in the Sandoval County Detention Center,

approximately 25 would have been potential candidates for diversion and treatment under a

mental health court system. At least half of the people in jails have a co-occurring substance

abuse addiction and the mental illness frequently needs to be primary treatment emphasis.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

This bill reflects a commitment by the Thirteenth Judicial District to address the problem of

untreated mental illness and its affect on the community.

This bill funds a mental health program that reduces the incidents of arrest and incarceration of

repeat offenders with mental illness using the Court to mandate appropriate treatment rather than

incarceration. This appropriation would allow the thirteenth judicial district court to establish

and operate an adult mental health court program.

Mental Health courts are part of the growing national trend towards therapeutic justice programs,

or problem-solving courts, which are modeled on the nationally successful drug court programs.

Like drug courts, mental health courts combine treatment with the coercive power of the

judiciary and close supervision to ensure participants adhere to the treatment plan and other

program requirements.

As with drug courts, mental health courts require close collaboration between the courts, the

public defender’s and district attorney’s offices. And because of the time demands of such

programs, their budgets often include funds for all three agencies as is the case with this bill.

Such programs also require treatment staff, in the form of psychologists or psychiatrists, family

counselors, as well as court staff to administer and run the program who are trained for mental

health diversion or supervised release services. This legislation is not contained in the judiciary’s

unified budget.

PERFORMANCE IMPLICATIONS

FY 07 is the fourth year that the courts are participating in performance based budgeting. This

bill may have an impact on the measures of the district courts in the following areas:

•

cases disposed as a percentage of cases filed

•

percent change in case filings by case types

•

clearance rate

The success of the program will be measured by tracking the success of treatment and medication

compliance and continued checking of court records for recidivism.

House Bill 148 – Page

3

ADMINISTRATIVE IMPLICATIONS

There is an immediate administrative impact on the court resulting from added judicial and staff

time needed to dispose of these types of cases in keeping with the dictates of the mental health

court program. Over the long term, successful treatment of program participants should lead to a

decrease in court workload as such participants recover sufficiently to lead more normal, law-

abiding lives.

RELATIONSHIP

SB 206, 1st Judicial District Mental Health Court

WHAT WILL BE THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT ENACTING THIS BILL

Status quo. Mentally ill offenders will remain in jail longer than required due to insufficient staff

to arrange for aftercare.

Untreated or inadequately treated mentally ill offenders will likely re-offend. The program will

reduce the number of mentally ill offenders who are jailed repeatedly. . . “the revolving door."

This occurrence increases the risk to the community and perpetuates chronic re-entry into the

criminal justice system.

POSSIBLE QUESTIONS

Is the 13

th

Judicial District Court equipped to house and effectively implement this program.

CS/csd