Redlich Allison D, Steadman Henry J, Monahan John, Robbins Pamela Clark, Petrila John
Policy Research Associates, Inc., 345 Delaware Avenue, Delmar, NY 12054, USA.
Law Hum Behav. 2006 Jun;30(3):347-62. doi: 10.1007/s10979-006-9036-x.
Mental health courts (MHCs) represent an important new development at the interface of the criminal justice and mental health systems. MHCs are criminal courts for persons with mental illness that were in part created to divert this population from jail/prison into community treatment. MHCs are proliferating rapidly despite limited knowledge regarding their characteristics or their efficacy. We surveyed the entire population of adult MHCs in the United States, n = 90. In the past 8 years, MHCs have been created in 34 states, with an aggregate current caseload of 7,560 clients in MHCs nationally. Most courts (92%) reported using jail as a sanction for noncompliance, if only rarely. Further, jail sanction use was significantly predicted by increased judicial supervision and number of felons in the court. Implications for MHCs and social monitoring are discussed.
心理健康法庭（MHCs）是刑事司法系统与心理健康系统交叉领域一项重要的新发展。心理健康法庭是针对患有精神疾病的人的刑事法庭，部分目的是将这部分人群从监狱转移到社区治疗。尽管对其特点或功效了解有限，但心理健康法庭正在迅速增加。我们调查了美国所有的成人心理健康法庭，共90个。在过去8年里，34个州设立了心理健康法庭，目前全国心理健康法庭的总案件量为7560名客户。大多数法庭（92%）报告称，即使很少使用，也会将监禁作为对不遵守规定的一种制裁。此外，司法监督的增加和法庭中重罪犯的数量显著预测了监禁制裁的使用。本文讨论了对心理健康法庭和社会监督的影响。
