Press Room
The Consensus Project is coordinated by:
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| PROGRAM TITLE: |
Tarrant County Mental Health Court Diversion Program |
| AGENCY/ORGANIZATION: |
Tarrant County Pretrial Services |
| STATE: |
Texas |
| YEAR ESTABLISHED: |
2003 |
| LEVEL OF JURISDICTION: |
County |
| ISSUE AREA: |
Courts: Adjudication and Sentencing |
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Program Overview
The Mental Health Court Diversion Program is a pre-trial post-booking diversion program for the mentally impaired participants. The program is designed to divert eligible mentally impaired offenders out of the traditional criminal justice process and into an appropriate community based mental health treatment.
The Mental Health Court Diversion Program offers eligible offenders a treatment option that is judicially supervised. Once the partcipant is screened and approved for participation into the program, he will promptly begin a treatment program that is geared toward his individual needs.
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Recent Dialogue
Question for
Dexter Hall
Contact Person
Dear Mr. Hall,
I am writing to request data about the Tarrant Co. Mental Health Court. The Smith County Commissioners approved on Monday a mental health court docket for Smith County. They are seeking information about program success rates, recidivism, costs involved, and any miscellaneous outcome data that you may have. My contact information is:
Valerie Holcomb, MS, LPC, CCFC
Texas Correctional Office on Offenders with Medical and Mental Impairments
2624 Kensington Dr., Suite 108
Tyler, Tx 75701
(903) 561-6341
(903) 561-6249 fax
(903) 521-2000 cell
vholcomb@andrewscenter.com
Thanks, in advance,
Valerie Holcomb
- Valerie Holcomb
07/30/08 01:52 PM EST
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Program Description
The program accepts referrals from a variety of sources including: judges; defense attorneys; prosecutors; law enforcement; family members; jail staff; friends; or mental health professionals.
The mental health case manager review all referrals to the program and conducts an assessment for signs of mental illness. Once the initial screening is complete, the individual is identified and scheduled for a face-to-face interview. If the offender meets the criteria and agrees to be considered for participation, the case is submitted for review by the proscutor.
The current program is a 9-12 months. Each participant must follow his/her treatment plan as specified by the treatment provider and the case manager.
Each participant placed into the program is monitored by the Community Supervision and Corrections Department. All participants are scheduled for a compliance hearing each month. If the participant fail to comply with the treatment plan, they will be promptly scheduled for a staffing where options will be discussed by the Roundtable committee. The roundtable committee consist of the judge, proscutor, public defender, program manager, case manager, and the supervision officer.
The program schedules court once or twice a month depending on the number of particiipants in the program. The court serves to hear and monitor the progress of those offenders in the program. If the participant is not in compliance with the diversion agreement, the State may withdraw the diversion program agreement. If the court terminates the agreement, the case will be sent back to the court where the case was filed. The case will start over and failure to complete the Mental Health Court Diversion Program will not be used against the defendant in the new proceeding.
If the participant has been compliant and completes the Mental Health Court Diversion Program, the case will be remanded to the court of orgin for dismissal of all charges. The arrest will remain on the offender's criminal history, but the disposition will indicate that the case was dismissed.
Outcome Data
Since Oct.2003, there has been 37 participants accepted into the program. The program has successfully graduated 11 participants who met the program guidelines. There has been 3 participants terminated from the program for non-complaince. Other data will be forth coming.
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Staff from the Consensus Project, GAINS EBP Center, and GAINS TAPA Center have not conducted an empirical evaluation of any of the profiles provided in the directory. Accordingly, the Consensus Project, GAINS EBP, and GAINS TAPA do not promote any of these programs as "models" or "best practices." Nor does the directory reflect an inventory of all relevant efforts underway across the country. Administrators of the programs included in the directory are largely responsible for maintaining information about their initiative current. Accordingly, staff cannot guarantee that the information in the directory is completely current.
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