News

Since 1997, numerous "mental health courts" have been implemented across the United States to help serve criminals who need mental health treatment rather than just jail time. But do these courts work? PSU researcher Heidi Herinckx has spent the past few years tracking the success of one mental health court (MHC) in Clark County, Washington, trying to answer that question.

Herinckx and her team from the Regional Research Institute in PSU's Graduate School of Social Work spent two years working with the Clark County Department of Community Services to document whether criminals sent to its MHC for treatment instead of prison were able to keep from repeat-offending. Those in the program typically suffer from mental illness and have substance abuse problems, and have committed non-felony or non-violent misdemeanors.

Herinckx recently published the results of the study, noting that the program "was successful in reducing both the number of individuals who committed crimes and the total number of crimes committed by the MHC clients." Herinckx found that, over a year's time, the 368 offenders studied were four-times less likely to re-offend then those who did not complete the program.