New York Mayor Introduces Mental Health Initiative In City Courts System

Circle Connections: Policy & Regulatory Updates In an effort to curb crimes, lessen the cost of incarceration, and provide support for mentally ill criminals, Mayor Bloomberg announced an initiative to redirect mentally ill criminals into more appropriate treatment programs. Under the new initiative, court-based trained resource teams would provide data based on a defendant's mental health care needs to advise judges on risk likelihood and specific treatment needs that could help judges take more appropriate action than has been taken in the past. On average, 36% of the inmates in New York City currently suffer from mental illness . . .