Offer too good to turn down
Published 3:52 pm Friday, November 4, 2011
Amid the budget slashing at all levels of government, it seems counterintuitive to propose launching a new program.
But as Snohomish Police Chief John Turner so aptly put it last week in an article by Herald Writer Diana Hefley, “We have an offer that you can’t turn down.”
Turner was talking about an advisory board’s proposal to launch a mental health court in Snohomish County. The county would contribute $100,000 to the pilot project; the money would come from a tenth-of-a-percent sales tax dedicated to services for people with mental illnesses and addictions.
The part that the county “can’t turn down”: volunteers, including a judge and public defenders, would fuel the worthy effort. The tax money would pay for a part-time case manager and treatment coordinator, and a part-time prosecutor.
Like the county’s successful drug court program, the mental health court would offer alternatives to jail for certain offenders who agree to seek treatment and meet other conditions aimed at turning their lives in a more positive direction.
Jail is no place to treat mental illness. The recidivism rate for mentally ill offenders is high, and studies show that people who go through mental health courts are less likely to reoffend. Such programs are already in place in King and Skagit counties.
They’re not for everyone. They aim to help mentally ill offenders for whom existing diversion and other programs within the legal system aren’t the right answer. Under the Snohomish County proposal, participants would have to be diagnosed with a major mental illness, and people accused of certain violent crimes wouldn’t be eligible. Military veterans would get priority.
The idea is to add an effective tool for redirecting some mentally ill offenders away from a cycle of crime and incarceration, and toward a productive life. Success is obviously good for the offender, and for public safety, and reduces criminal justice costs.
Backers of the proposal are taking a realistic, go-slow approach, planning to build the program up over time as it proves its worth. But the enthusiasm reflected by the volunteers who have stepped forward to get this effort off the ground, and the planning of many professionals that has gone on behind the scenes, needs to be harnessed now so it isn’t lost.
The County Council should approve funding for this pilot project. It truly is an offer that mustn’t be turned down.
