“Acting strangely” in public can result in being arrested and possibly charged with a crime, for the many people with mental illness who find themselves living on the street. But a Bellingham Municipal Court program to divert mentally ill detainees away from jail and into treatment has led to an impressive decline in crimes committed by participants.
In fact, over the first two years of the program, the rate of crimes committed by participants in the city’s Mental Health Court fell by 80 percent, Bellingham Municipal Court Commissioner Pete Smiley told the Bellingham City Council’s Justice Committee in late April.
“This is one of the most successful programs I’ve ever seen,” Smiley said. He referenced a Washington State University researcher who reviewed a similar program in King County and lauded the program’s success.
Smiley and program manager Linda Grant said cooperation among the court, law enforcement, and treatment and other resource providers, and an emphasis with participants on positive reinforcement along with accountability are the reasons.
The program was launched in 2015 and is part of the Bellingham Reduces Incarceration Challenge (BRIC) created in 2016.
It is one of four therapeutic jail alternatives programs in the county. Others are Whatcom County District Court’s similar mental health program, Whatcom County Superior Court’s Drug Court, and Bellingham Municipal Court’s Domestic Violence Court.
Such problem-solving courts are recognized as appropriate for many cases where traditional adversarial courts are not effective, Grant said ....
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