Study on Outcomes of Participants in Specialty Courts Who Have a Mental Illness

The 85th Legislature's Senate Bill 1326 directed OCA to collect and report on information “regarding outcomes of participants in specialty courts who are persons with mental illness, including recidivism rates of those participants, and other relevant information as determined by the office.”

Reviewing the performance of criminal justice programs and the outcomes of individuals in them is essential to developing effective and accountable criminal justice policy. Specialty courts have grown in popularity in recent years and are a well-established and highly valued component of many communities’ justice systems. According to the National Drug Court Institute (NDCI), there was an increase of over 10% nationwide of all specialty court types, also known as problem solving courts, between 2009 and 2014, the latest year for which national data is available.1 According to NDCI data, the increase in the number of these courts in Texas during the period was 43%.2 Drug courts remain the most common variety and most deeply studied of these courts, though other court types have been established, both nationally and in Texas.

• Study on Outcomes of Participants in Specialty Courts Who Have a Mental Illness