Defendants with Mental Health Issues

Defendants who suffer from mental health issues can present enormous challenges to the court system and jail. Many such defendants repeatedly cycle through the criminal justice system, often charged with minor offenses, clogging court calendars and jail cells without receiving the proper mental health services they need. This can be due to a lack of assessments for need, adequate resources in the community or a lack of coordination between the mental health and criminal justice systems.

This section contains the chapters of each set of standards related to this topic, examples submitted by programs, related publications and results from our Survey of Pretrial Programs series.