Announcement for 05/28/10
Illinois Supreme Court Names Justice Kathryn Zenoff Chair of New Special Advisory Committee for Justice and Mental Health Planning
In April, the Illinois Supreme Court created a Special Supreme Court Advisory Committee for Justice and Mental Health Planning. Chief Justice Thomas R. Fitzgerald named Appellate Justice Kathryn Zenoff, co-chair of the Judges’ Criminal Justice/Mental Health Leadership Initiative (JLI), chair of this new committee. This committee builds on other state efforts in this area and adds Illinois to an increasing number of states where supreme courts are directly addressing the issue of mental illness in the criminal justice system.
"There has been a general recognition that untreated persons with mental illness can cause a never-ending cycle of court interventions, especially in the criminal courts," said Chief Justice Fitzgerald. "This new advisory committee is an effort to use our resources as best we can to provide accused offenders a serious opportunity for rehabilitation and treatment."
Justice Zenoff’s engagement in this issue began when she chaired the community-wide task force in Illinois’s 17th Circuit that created one of the state’s first mental health courts, which she presided over when it opened in 2005. Since her elevation to the Appellate Court, Justice Zenoff has brought the Illinois experience to the national stage, becoming co-chair of the JLI in 2007 and testifying on "Mental Illness in U.S. Prisons and Jails" before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law.
"Across the country, judges are realizing that their positions uniquely qualify them to improve how the courts handle individuals with serious mental illnesses and co-occurring substance use disorders who end up in our courtrooms," noted Justice Zenoff. "Our committee will address this issue on several fronts. One priority will be improving how judges in the state are trained to appropriately recognize and address mental illnesses among those appearing in our courts."
The Conference of Chief Justices/Conference of State Court Administrators encouraged chief justices to "take a leadership role to address the impact of mental illness on the court system" through cross-branch collaboration in 2006 through Resolution 11. Since then, eleven states have worked with the JLI’s Chief Justice Initiative, with technical assistance provided by the Council of State Governments Justice Center and the National GAINS Center, and funding from the Hilton Foundation, the JEHT Foundation, and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, to develop statewide task forces addressing this issue.
Illinois has developed a number of innovative practices at the state level to coordinate and enhance mental health courts. The Mental Health Court Association of Illinois, founded in 2009, provides annual training for mental health court practitioners, in addition to facilitating collaboration and the development of standard practices. The Division of Mental Health of the Illinois Department of Human Services has promoted secure information sharing among behavioral health-care providers, the courts, and corrections through a number of information platforms, including the Illinois Mental Health Court database project, currently in a pilot phase, and the Jail DataLink program.