The role of competency to stand trial in mental health courts

Stafford, Kathleen P.; Wygant, Dustin B.

doi:10.1002/bsl.649

Cited by 21 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Such “back door” strategies typically are considered undesirable because they subvert the admission requirements for involuntary civil commitment. Stafford and Wygant (), however, suggested otherwise. They found that 77.5% of defendants referred to a mental health court in Ohio were found incompetent to stand trial, and that they were all subsequently hospitalized at a state facility for restoration of competence (for an average of 49 days).…”

Section: Systemic Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ten Year Research Update (2001–2010): Evaluations for Competence to Stand Trial (Adjudicative Competence)

Fogel

Schiffman

Mumley

et al. 2013

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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This article reviews and evaluates publications during 2001-2010 with relevance for assessments of competence to stand trial, referred to in this article as adjudicative competence. The review focuses specifically on articles that provide new concepts or data supported by research or case analyses. The studies are reviewed under the following headings: (i) systemic issues, (ii) conceptual guidelines for AC evaluations, (iii) AC assessment methods, (iv) empirical correlates of AC judgments and psycholegal abilities, (v) quality of AC evaluations and reports, (vi) interpretive issues, (vii) special populations (defendants who are elderly, defendants with intellectual disabilities), (viii) AC evaluations of juveniles, and (ix) treatment of incompetent defendants. Suggestions are offered for further research to advance the quality of clinical evaluations of adjudicative competence.

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Section: Systemic Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ten Year Research Update (2001–2010): Evaluations for Competence to Stand Trial (Adjudicative Competence)

Fogel

Schiffman

Mumley

et al. 2013

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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“…18 Complicating adherence to this portion of the element is that a recognized measure does not exist to assess the relationship between the criminal act and the defendant's mental illness. 18 Competency to stand trial especially is a concern in mental health courts, [25][26] and even some misdemeanor courts have centralized units to conduct competency evaluations. 14 Competency is assessed informally by members of the MMHC court team, and if anyone questions competency, defendants cannot return to the MMHC until their provider indicates they are competent to stand trial.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementing the Essential Elements of a Mental Health Court: The Experiences of a Large Multijurisdictional Suburban County

Linhorst

Dirks‐Linhorst

Stiffelman³

et al. 2009

J Behav Health Serv Res

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Mental health courts developed in the USA in the late 1990s as one means to reduce the involvement of people with mental illness in the criminal justice system. In response to the growth in number of mental health courts, the Council of State Governments led an initiative to identify essential elements of mental health courts to guide their development and implementation. This paper applies these essential elements to a municipal mental health court in a multijurisdictional, suburban county. While this court met most essential elements, they faced a number of challenges. The primary ones included not being able to advance from hearing municipal cases only to state misdemeanor and felonies, not having the resources to expand program capacity for municipal cases, and participants not being able to always access needed mental health treatment, rehabilitation, and support services. The paper concludes with implications for behavioral health administrators and direct service staff in implementing the essential elements of mental health courts.

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“…As a result, they are more likely to fail to comply and therefore return to jail. This is a major criticism in the literature regarding therapeutic-only MHCs (Redlich, 2005;Stafford and Wygant, 2005).…”

Section: Logistics Of Seattle's Competency Courtmentioning

confidence: 97%

Competency courts: a creative solution for restoring competency to the competency process

Finkle

Kurth²,

Cadle³

et al. 2009

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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It is well accepted that jail is a poor setting for treating the acutely mentally ill, yet the number of mentally ill persons in jail has increased such that Los Angeles County Jail and Riker's Island in New York house more mentally ill than any psychiatric hospital. The number of mentally ill persons charged with a crime whose competency to stand trial is in question has also increased dramatically. Inefficiencies within the competency process result in mentally ill persons charged with crimes remaining in jail longer than necessary. One solution is "competency court", a specialty court within a mental health court. The same judges, attorneys, and mental health professionals staff both courts. By combining their Mental Health Court experience, they can work with the mentally ill using their expertise in competency law and processes, and thereby improve the competency process and reduce the unnecessary time that mentally ill persons spend in jail.

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The role of competency to stand trial in mental health courts

Cited by 21 publications

References 15 publications

Ten Year Research Update (2001–2010): Evaluations for Competence to Stand Trial (Adjudicative Competence)

Ten Year Research Update (2001–2010): Evaluations for Competence to Stand Trial (Adjudicative Competence)

Implementing the Essential Elements of a Mental Health Court: The Experiences of a Large Multijurisdictional Suburban County

Competency courts: a creative solution for restoring competency to the competency process

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