Abstract
Mental illness poses unique challenges to the justice system, which the traditional model of criminal justice is poorly suited to confront. In the last few decades, problem-solving courts specifically tailored to reflect this dilemma have emerged, and early research into the effectiveness of these courts has shown promising results. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 began the process of deinstitutionalizing people with mental illnesses, but the legislation was underfunded and only half of the proposed community mental health centers contemplated by the legislation were ever built. In the absence of appropriate treatment, people with mental illnesses began to be incarcerated in disproportionate numbers, resulting in the replacement of deinstitutionalization with trans-institutionalization. Winnebago County, Illinois, opened a problem-solving court called the Therapeutic Intervention Program Court (TIP Court) in February 2005. The author was a Circuit Court Judge in Winnebago County at the time the TIP Court opened, and chaired the community-wide task force that created the court. In this article, the author reflects on her experiences presiding over a problem-solving court in Illinois.
Recommended Citation
Kathryn E. Zenoff & Carl Norberg,
Reflections on Judging in a Mental Health Court and Challenges Beyond the Courtroom Doors,
40
S. Ill. U. L.J.
445
(2016).
Available at:
https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/siulj/vol40/iss3/5