The Justice Center and the Bureau of Justice Assistance to Host and Archive a  July National Criminal Justice/Mental Health Training and Technical Assistance Event 

Spotlight on JMHCP: Wichita, Kansas

Each month the Justice Center spotlights collaborative criminal justice/mental health initiatives that have received funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance's Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP).  Center staff asks the practitioners in these programs to discuss some successes and challenges they have encountered in the planning and implementation process. This month's profile is from Wichita, Kansas.

Program Summary

With JMHCP support, we have developed the Wichita-Sedgwick County Justice Collaborative: Alternative Treatments and Interventions for Consumers (ATIC).  ATIC builds on strong community partnerships to provide alternatives to incarceration for justice-involved people with mental illnesses when appropriate.  This project has two main components—providing Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training for law enforcement professionals and establishing a mental health court within the local municipal court.   The mental health court will focus on providing non-adversarial, therapeutic approaches to address the mental health issues of those individuals appearing in municipal court. 

How did your jurisdiction realize that there was a need to respond to the prevalence of individuals with mental illnesses in the criminal justice system?

Personnel from the municipal court and COMCARE of Sedgwick County (the community health center) observed a large number of individuals with mental illnesses appearing on court dockets and being sentenced to jail.  For example, a 2005 study found that 62 percent of individuals in the Sedgwick County Adult Detention Facility (SCADF) were current or past COMCARE clients.  Prior to the grant award, the court had limited options available to address the underlying causes for these individuals’ recurrent criminal behavior, which motivated the City of Wichita to apply for a JMHCP grant.  

How did your initiative capitalize on pre-existing relationships or partnerships in the jurisdiction, or build new ones? 

The City of Wichita Municipal Court has enjoyed an ongoing partnership with COMCARE.  COMCARE has worked with drug court clients since the court’s inception, and provides treatment services (such as outpatient care and case management) to residents with mental illnesses living in Sedgwick County.  This established partnership enabled us to leverage COMCARE’s resources and move forward with a therapeutic court aimed at serving individuals with mental illnesses.

How did you identify your program’s target population?

Prior to the creation of a mental health court, municipal court judges referred defendants that appeared to have a mental illness to the Sedgwick County Offender Assessment Program (SCOAP),  which is also run by COMCARE. SCOAP serves individuals who transition from jail to the community, and helps to address the needs of those whose mental illness contributed to their arrest.  However, COMCARE clinicians and court staff recognized that this intensive program was insufficient to meet the needs of all justice-involved people with mental illnesses in the community, and that diversion was a better option in some cases.  ATIC seeks to provide a diversion option for individuals with serious mental illnesses who have been arrested for non-violent misdemeanors and are appearing in municipal court.

What has been your biggest challenge and how are you addressing it?

One of the biggest challenges we have faced is balancing the varied interests of prosecutors, law enforcement personnel, and treatment providers.  Law enforcement professionals and prosecutors are tasked with promoting public safety through the arrest and subsequent prosecution of city code violations.  The primary focus of COMCARE, as it relates to ATIC, is to provide treatment to individuals with mental illnesses appearing in municipal court. We have sought to address their differing organizational missions by focusing on our shared goals, as well as the long-term positive impact the mental health court will have on our community.

Provide an example of a particular success your program has had to date, either in moving from planning to implementation or in showing an impact on an individual, group or community.

The grant award helped fund CIT training for nearly forty law enforcement officers, and cross-training for several other criminal justice professionals.  The curriculum included an overview of mental illnesses, treatment of mental illnesses, substance abuse, de-escalation techniques, suicide intervention, crisis negotiations, and related topics. The goal of the training was to give attendees knowledge of the major diagnoses they will encounter, and how best to communicate with mental health consumers at the scene.  Attendees also were trained in techniques for calming individuals in crisis.

What steps have you taken or are planning to take to sustain your initiative?

We are reviewing existing mental health courts and their best practices.  We have assigned a judge and established a mental health court docket.  Although an ongoing funding source has not been identified, we are developing a sustainability plan that will enable us to continue providing services once our grant has ended. 

Contact information:

Mr. Donte Martin 
Assistant to the Court Administrator
dmartin@wichita.gov           

 

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