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From the Florida Supreme Court's website: <br />http://www.flcourts.org/resources-and-services/court- <br />improvement/problem-solving-courts/mental-health-courts.stml <br />Mental Health Courts <br />The origin of mental health courts stemmed from situations <br />similar to those preceding the development of drug courts - <br />repeat offenders in need of treatment services. With available <br />community resources dwindling for people with serious mental <br />illness (SMI), the courts were seeing more repeat offenders with <br />untreated mental illness. Florida's jails and prisons are not <br />designed, equipped, or funded to deal with SMI, so the use of the <br />drug court model/problem-solving court model was a logical <br />response. <br />Mental health courts generally share the following goals: to <br />improve public safety by reducing criminal recidivism; to improve <br />the quality of life of people with mental illnesses and increase <br />their participation in effective treatment; and to reduce court - <br />and corrections -related costs through administrative efficiencies <br />and often by providing an alternative to incarceration. Monitoring <br />and treating offenders with SMI in a mental health court is more <br />effective, efficient, and Tess expensive than the remedies <br />available through traditional justice system approaches. <br />As of October 2014, Florida has 26 mental health courts in <br />operating in 16 circuits. Like drug courts, mental health courts <br />hold offenders accountable while linking them to the treatment <br />services they need to address their mental illness. Monitoring and <br />treating offenders with SMI in a mental health court is more <br />effective, efficient, and less expensive than the remedies <br />available through traditional justice system approaches. <br />10 <br />