Summit County creates HOPE with new Mental Health Court

Two defendants have joined Summit County’s new mental health court, which started this September. Hope Court, as Judge Alison Breaux calls it, deals with healing, opportunity, progress and empowerment for people with mental illness in the justice system.

“Once I took the bench in 2017,” Breaux said, “I noticed right off the bat that there were a lot of people who were suffering from a mental illness. … These people were off their medications or, sometimes, this was their first psychotic break and they found themselves in jail, and it didn’t take me long to figure out that there was a need to help folks.”

 

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) claims 15 percent of men and 30 percent of women who are booked into jails have a serious mental health issue, and over 2 million people with mental health issues are taken to jail every year.

In March, Breaux gathered all of Summit County’s agencies, including the local NAMI chapter, defense councils, Community Support Services and Akron’s Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health (ADM) Board.

“I took all of the agencies,” Breaux said, “and I said ‘I want this to be up and running by fall’ and they were like, ‘That’s not going to happen,’ and I’m like ‘Why? Why can’t it happen?’ … I said, ‘I’m doing this.’”

And on Sept. 10, Hope Court had its first session with defendant James Spiegel. Here, Breaux explained how the two-year program is similar to probation, but the defendant has to check in with the judge every two weeks. 

When people are on probation, Breaux said, a judge doesn’t see them again until there is another violation. By checking in with a judge, counselor and drug screeners, defendants are much more likely to have positive results.

During the second session of Hope Court on Sept. 24, Spiegel revealed his girlfriend left him, leaving him with his kids.

“I gotta stay clean for my kids,” Spiegel told Breaux as he wiped his eyes on his sleeve. Spiegel still managed to go to all of his necessary appointments during the week, despite this. Breaux told him he was doing well.

“Do you know how hard it is to stay clean when you’re sad?” she asked. She gave Spiegel a journal to write in when he is sad, or happy, or angry. Spiegel chose a small purple composition book.

 

Hope Court isn’t the first mental health court to appear in Ohio. Summit is the tenth county in Ohio to have a mental health court, with others being both common pleas courts as well as municipal courts. Theresa Spiker is the coordinator of the specialized docket for Portage County’s mental health court program.

 

“Most people who graduate the program … let the judge know they really appreciate the opportunity she has given them,” she said. “A lot of times clients are not stable when they enter the program, and by the time they graduate they have become stable.”

While most mental health courts, like the one in Portage County, deal with misdemeanor offenders, Hope Court is for people with mental illness who were charged with low-level felonies.

“We don’t really have a mechanism in our common pleas courts to direct people who get involved in the criminal justice system into treatment services,” said Jerry Craig, the executive director of Akron’s ADM Board.

“Some of those people get stuck in the criminal justice system inappropriately. This gives us the opportunity to leverage them into treatment where we might have missed that opportunity in the past.”

During the second session, Breaux informed the newest addition to the Hope Court, April Richards, “You’ve got the hard part, you’ve got to do the work.”

As the program continues, Breaux hopes to see up to 30-35 participants at a time. The participants must be diagnosed with a mental health condition such as schizophrenia, PTSD or bipolar disorder and must remain sober.

“Our criminal justice system is not about punishing people,” Craig said. “It’s about making sure that they take the necessary steps to restore their lives.”

 

 

 

Summit County HOPE court’s first participant James Spiegel looks at his planner when he returns two weeks later to speak with Judge Alison Breaux. #reportingpublicpolicy pic.twitter.com/Y0vCXNQicU

— Mitch Felan (@mitchfelan) September 26, 2018

Summit County has created a new mental health court. Judge Alison Breaux has already accepted two people into the program. Full story soon to come! #mentalhealth #mentalhealthcourt #summitcounty pic.twitter.com/SpHNPzpIfD

— Megan Ayscue (@megan_ayscue) September 26, 2018

 

Who did what?

Megan: written story, some small help with video (questions, carrying equip, help set up/take down, minimal stuff), putting everything together online, one photo, pulling photos/audio

Mitch: recording and editing full video, map graphic, help with finding NAMI stat for the written story, pulling photos