Released on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.

In our last two episodes on mental health and the courts we talked about the fact that traditional criminal case management is not meeting the needs of the people we serve. We must develop a new comprehensive and collaborative model. We need to create a fair and effective caseflow management system that meets the challenges of those with behavioral health needs.

There are estimates that up to 70% of the individuals seen in our criminal courts today have behavioral health issues. Currently, state courts do not generally have systems in place to help those with these challenges. This need is made even more urgent with the pandemic and the resulting case backlogs. We must find a new model to strengthen the collaborative court and community response to individuals with behavioral health needs.

This month is the third of our five-episode discussion with members of the National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts’ Response to Mental Illness. Some of the topics we will explore include:

• What is this new collaborative model for addressing caseflow management?
• What are the four pillars that make up the new caseflow management model?
• How can court administrators integrate this new model into a court’s existing practices and
• What resources are available for us to use now?

Our panel today includes:

• The Honorable Paula Carey, recently retired Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Trial Courts
• Don Jacobson, Senior Special Projects Consultant with the Arizona Supreme Court

Click here to listen to the podcast. The audio version is 36 minutes 2 seconds long and the video version is 38 minutes 10 seconds long.

Leave a question or comment about the episode at clapodcast@nacmnet.org.