Among his many activities, Dr. Fred C. Osher advises state governments on how best to address mental health issues in the criminal justice system. Here he talks about the pros and cons of mental health courts.
Fred C. Osher, M.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine
Fred C. Osher, M.D., is the Director of the Center for Behavioral Health, Justice, and Public Policy and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Among his many activities, he advises state governments on how best to address mental health issues in the criminal justice system. In January 2005, Osher sat down with the Center for Court Innovation’s Carolyn Turgeon to talk about mental health courts.
Are mental health courts a good idea?
I think that they’re a response to the court’s perception of a high representation of folks with mental illness within the criminal justice system. It’s hard to answer what I think about mental health courts because every court is so different in their goals and objectives and how they conduct their business, but I think they have a lot of promise to address some of the revolving door clients that come into the criminal justice system. We do not have sound data at this point to understand the overall effectiveness of mental health courts.