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pellet gun ... He not present when att this
other stuff »ww going on... One of the biggest
problems we've got is.. we have what the defen
dant says and what his friends say and that s it.
It's not tike a OUI where an officer is present at
the scene.
FP: Hhde Tee got you m the hot seat, con you
to# about the discussions underway about a pots
vbte mental health court here* Why is d needed*
What end ft do *
Wh It's in the very preliminary planning
stages. We need it because of the revolving door
syndrome. We’ve got a tot of folks that keep going
to, and as soon as they get released, they get re-
arrested. There are individuals sitting out m jail
that will sit there a week or two weeks, get out on
bond, and then be neanested in 24 hours. The
charges wiU be things tike
public drunk, panhandling,
criminal trespass. We've got
people who are spending
300 days out of 345 days in
the county jaR.
It's nothing the judges
are doing, or the system is doing. Its just they're
going to be reanested. We re not addressing the
underlying issues. Just basic fiscal responsibility
says we should be doing something. We're paying
145 a day just to keep them out there. And once
again we re not addressing the problems. So there
has been a committee—that Probate Court Judge
Susan Tate is doing, along with numerous people
from the University of Georgia, the law school-
looking at the practicality of a mental health
court here. We were charged with looking at dif
ferent mental health courts around the state, in
Albany, Columbus, and Bibb and Dekalb counties.
FP: How might the court work?
BP; The way I think it's run elsewhere, it pro
vides heightened supervision after cases have
been adjudicated. It would involve not only the
court but probation, and different services like
family counseling, Advantage Behavioral. It would
involve them in the problems, such as treating
tchuophrema or bipolar disorder, so well have a
team approach and we're att responding.
We had a guy in court this past week. He
started screaming at one of my assistants, and
started cussing me. Turns out he was diagnosed as
a paranoid schizophrenic, and was hearing voices,
those kind of symptoms. He pleaded not guilty,
left court and was arrested before • p.n that
evening. That's a perfect enampte of what I’m
talking about. If there's no intervention, hell keep
being arrested, and his sentences might lengthen
over time.
The options are to do something about it or
build a bigger jad. In the next five years, well
double the sue of our >a»t If we don't do some
thing about the revolving door for the mentally
ill, we d better triple or quadruple it.
In some drug courts, if you re-offend, you
might go to jad for two
years, winch to me is ready
draconian.
In a mental health court,
after sentencing, you might
see the judge every couple
weeks to make sure you're
doing what you're supposed to be doing. It would
be like the DU I court here, where, if you relapse
and test positive for atcohot you might spend
24-40 hours in jail, because they've got them on
probation. There's more flexibility.
FP: Green that mental health patients don't
otways comply with treatment readily won't we
need some sort of overnight core facility, to be truly
effective* Athens doesn't have that sort of psych*--
atnc facility now. Even physKWis at Athens
Regional Werhcol Center ore quitting then shifts on
the psychiatric word.
BP: There s some of these people who are just
going to need residential treatment. As much as
we have in this community, alt these counseling
services, that's the one thing we don't have.
That's going to have to change if we want the
mental heaith court to be successful
Joan Strter
“Always try to use the laws
on the books before creating
another law"
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