What We Know Now About Mental Health and the Courts: Grasping the Challenge

The challenge of mental health impacts America nationwide.  It impacts our states, our communities, our courts, and our entire justice system. Courts are at the center of the clash between competing funding choices, community concerns, and those struggling with behavioral health issues.  Local jails and detention centers are the largest providers of mental health services in the country: for both adults and children.  In 44 states a jail or prison holds more individuals with mental health issues than that state’s largest psychiatric hospital. On the other hand, nearly 30 percent of all family homicides involve an individual suffering with a mental illness.

The Honorable Steve Leifman, Judge 11th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida in Miami. Judge Leifman is the Associate Administrative Judge of the Miami-Dade County Court – Criminal Division. From 2007 – 2010, Judge Leifman served as Special Advisor on Criminal Justice and Mental Health for the Supreme Court of Florida. He chairs the Steering Committee on Problem Solving Courts for the Supreme Court of Florida and the Mental Health Committee for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida. In 2015, Judge Leifman received the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence.

Patricia Tobias is a Principle Court Management Consultant National Center for State Courts in Denver, Colorado. Patti has been a NCSC Principal Court Management Consultant since 2014, after serving 20+ years as the Idaho State Court Administrator and 13 years with the Missouri Courts at both the trial and state court level. She is a past president of the Conference of State Court Administrators and served as Vice-Chair, NCSC Board of Directors. She was honored with the Warren E. Burger Award for Excellence in Court Administration in 2012.