After being in business for a year, Northampton County DA John Morganelli is calling the County's fledgling mental health court a success. During that time, 43 people applied for admission. only nine have been approved both by the DA and the Courts. Eight cases are still under consideration.
There's reason to be cautious. This is a diversionary program. A person who makes it through this program will be rewarded with a dismissal of the charges. When the court was first established, the hope was that it would provide classic mental health treatment and housing opportunities.
Like the Mental Health Court, Drug Court is another problem solving court that got its start in Northampton County last year. That is a post-conviction court.
Do these courts just add costs? Advocates argue that they actually save money. Every person kept out of jail saves the County $100 per day. State programs and private insurance bear much of the cost. According to a study prepared by the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, every dollar invested in a drug court saves taxpayers $3.36 in criminal justice costs alone. Most importantly, 75% of drug court graduates never see another pair of handcuffs.
President Judge Stephen Baratta and Judge Craig Dally are the driving force behind these innovations.
12 comments:
How can every dollar invested save $3.36? Just curious.
Also, Is this program like the first offenders program where your record is made clean and your record of being a criminal is non existent because you successfully completed a course for first time offenders, Just curious because if this is the case that you have no record of being a mental problem to society and you have no record of being a criminal after one year of successfully completing these programs does that mean you can still purchase a gun?
I am 6:15 AM
and have obviously misread the comment about saving $3.36 for every dollar invested. Still, when do we ever reach the saturation point of not investing money to save money in Government programs? That appears to be the problem with government. Start a half assed program that doesn't function well and then start another half assed program to fix the first half assed program.
I havde deleted two comments that are both anonymous and completely off topic.
6:22, This is actually a very Republican or conservative program that uses existing resources and invests no money. So now you can like it.
An unintended consequence of closing state hospitals and mental institutions?
Has JM "officially" announced for AG yet? He's going to have an uphill battle against Josh Shapiro and Frank Zappa.
"An unintended consequence of closing state hospitals and mental institutions?"
Absolutely.
"Has JM "officially" announced for AG yet? He's going to have an uphill battle against Josh Shapiro and Frank Zappa."
It appears to be a crowded field, and so long as it stays that way, he has a shot. He will need lots of money, and i don't know that he can get it.
love your new pic, bo, trying out for the goodyear blimp?
JM will always claim everything he or anyone does is a very successful thing from him.
Luv da guy.
Coulda'/ shoulda' happened years ago.
Nothing like being on the trailing edge of progressive program policy.
NCis hardly on the trailing edge. More like middle of the pack.
This does nothing to even scratch the surface of the communities issues due to the state hospital closure. Also the only people who cannot buy guns who are mentality ill are people who have been involuntary committed. Any person with mental illness can purchase a fire arm.
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