OFFICIALS SEEK SPECIAL COURT SYSTEM FOR THE MENTALLY ILL

PARK CITY - Mental health officials are urging the adoption of a
special court system for the mentally ill that could help ensure that
offenders get the treatment they need.

Meredith Alden, director of the state Division of Mental Health, said
a group of mental health providers and a Department of Corrections
advisory council both like the idea of mental health courts.

The courts are loosely modeled after drug courts that many states have
adopted to hear misdemeanor cases involving offenders who have
substance abuse problems.

In Florida's Broward County, which pioneered the mental health court
concept, misdemeanor cases involving defendants deemed severely
mentally ill are heard on an expedited basis, usually within a day of
the arrest.

Depending upon the circumstances, the court can divert individuals
into inpatient or outpatient treatment or release them. The court can
also issue a conditional release or a civil commitment.

The courts are among the issues the state mental health board is
considering in a meeting to develop a response to Gov. Mike Leavitt's
challenge to study civil commitment of the mentally ill, access to weapons,
support of family members and system responsiveness.

Leavitt made the request in the wake of two fatal shootings earlier
this year in Salt Lake involving mentally ill people possessing guns.
The board has until May 24 to forward its recommendations to Leavitt.

According to some estimates, some 700 people in Utah's prison system
are mentally ill.

"Many of them, when they are out of control . . . they're not getting
medication, they're getting maced," said Peter Heinbecker, director
of the forensic unit at the Utah State Hospital.

Jay Fox, chairman of the State Board of Mental Health, said he knew of
one woman housed in a county jail who was unclothed for three weeks
because jailers feared she would commit suicide.