Trial Effort

PORTLAND IS ON TRACK to get a pilot mental health court by
the end of June, with the aim of reducing repeat offenses by those
whose illegal behavior is primarily the result of mental illness.

The project is good news for those like Public Defender Rachel
Bredfeldt, who watched one of her clients have a nervous breakdown at
the Multnomah County Courthouse on SW 4th two weeks ago. Bredfeldt’s
client, who was already suffering from mental illness before her April
16 court date for a low-level misdemeanor, broke down crying before
falling down on the courtroom floor to pray. She eventually had to be
escorted out of court by the judge—after she refused to let
anyone else help her—to an ambulance waiting outside.

“Court is such a stressful setting for everyone,” says Bredfeldt.
“This was just one of those examples of criminal prosecution making a
defendant’s mental illness even worse.”

The mentally ill woman, whose episode brought the busy court docket
to a standstill for over an hour, had her case set for prosecution
another day. Bredfeldt, who estimates she has to defend two clients a
week who are suffering from severe enough mental illness that going to
court is “not the best way to deal with their issues,” does not hold
high hopes for her client’s next appearance in court.

“There’s a whole population of people with mental health problems
who recycle through the system,” says District Attorney Mike Schrunk,
who along with public defenders like Bredfeldt, and representatives
from the state and Multnomah County, has been working hard to make the
mental health court a reality.

“The idea is for a court to cope with the mental health aspect of
the problem, so that the public is better off, the police are better
off, and the person is better off,” Schrunk says.

The details: Chief Criminal Court Judge Julie Frantz has secured
jail diversion funding from the state’s Department of Human Services.
The money will pay for three qualified mental health professionals to
work with a dedicated judge. The team’s goal is to hook mentally ill
people up with medication and counseling instead of prosecuting them
for low-level crimes.

The pilot project will initially have a capacity of 75 people, who
will be drawn from those already on probation. To qualify, participants
will need to have a history of treatment for an “axis one” mental
illness like schizophrenia, paranoia, bipolar disorder, or major
depression. When such a person is arrested for a new crime, they will
be screened within 20 hours of arrest before arraignment, where they’ll
escape charges for that crime if they agree, after consulting with a
lawyer, to go into mental health court.

“Why this court can be so successful is through developing a strong
bond between the judge and individuals,” says Frantz. “This is about
intense supervision to ensure compliance with a plan, and about having
a dialogue.”

Judge Richard Baldwin is expected to run the court. He’ll be able to
set conditions for those taking part, which—on top of medication
and counseling—may include things like maintaining employment,
staying in school, or keeping the court informed of where the person is
living. The time under mental health court supervision will last as
long as the sentence for the original crime for which the person was
arrested—for example, a class B misdemeanor carries a maximum
sentence of six months.

Frantz and Schrunk plan to announce more details of the plan to the
public soon, but in the meantime activists in the mental health
community are anticipating it with optimism.

“If we actually provided effective, outcome-based treatment on
demand for mental health clients in Oregon, you could probably shut
down one hospital and two prisons within two years,” says Jason Renaud
with the Mental Health Association of Portland. “This is a step in the
right direction.”

Bredfeldt is pleased, too, even though the new court will be too
late to help her client this time.

“It only hurts the community when these people cycle in and out of
the system,” she says.