AURORA | A new problem-solving court that would divert mentally ill, low-level offenders from jail into treatment is already getting high praise from city officials.
Judge Richard Weinberg said the idea for the wellness court came out of the success of the city’s first specialty court, called Females Utilizing Treatment and Undertaking Recovery Efforts, or FUTURE. That pilot program was launched in December 2012, and aims to rehabilitate prostitutes who are repeat offenders. To be accepted into the program, the women have to be assessed as “high risk” and have a history of mental illness and drug use.
Only 10 percent of all of the women who participated in the program — regardless of whether they completed the requirements that include living in the safe house and undergoing psychiatric treatment and weekly court visits — re-offended, according to Weinberg.
“We are extremely happy with the results we’ve received. I’m now a firm believer in treatment and recovery courts, or what are also called wellness courts,” he said. “There is a very large degree of recidivism for women arrested for prostitution.” He said the rate is estimated as high as 90 percent.
The FUTURE program is grant-funded and Weinberg said that money will run out next fall. He said the mental health court would be a place where women from the FUTURE program would be able to transition, but the broader nature of the court would open it up to more repeat offenders that also drain the city’s staff and resources.
Weinberg pointed to independent data compiled by the city’s police, city attorney and public defenders offices that showed more than 1,000 people arrested in 2013 suffered from mental illness. According to Arapahoe County, it costs $98 per day to incarcerate someone with a mental health illness versus $68 for the average daily cost of incarcerating an inmate without a mental illness.
Weinberg said the city received a competitive planning grant of $65,000 to create the mental health court. He said with that money the city hired attorney Gina Shimeall as a planning coordinator. She has assisted in the creation of wellness courts in the 18th Judicial District and Colorado Springs.
“It is our goal to have the court designed and ready to open by October 2015,” Weinberg said.
Statewide, Colorado judicial officials have launched 78 similar “problem-solving courts” that operate in 20 districts. In 2013, the 18th District also launched a veteran’s court for military members with mental health and substance abuse issues located in Douglas County.
Seems to be an excellent program.