Treatment Courts

Treatment #4: 
Support Treatment Court programs.

Sponsored by:

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Project Information

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The IBHC Treatment Court Implementation Team originally identified five action items and began work on the first four. They added a sixth action item to document work already in progress.

1. Perform a gap analysis towards a recommendation for the potential expansion of mental health courts – The first step in performing the mental health court gap analysis is identifying and obtaining data. Unfortunately, the Data and Evaluation team at ISC has been unable to provide the data according to the original timelines.  The team is still waiting for them to provide data.
2. Adequately fund treatment courts – This team began its work by sending surveys to all state coordinators to identify current funding for treatment courts in their states and uncover funding shortalls and district disparities. They will also look closer at other states that most resemble Idaho’s demographic make up to see what their treatment court funding system looks like.
3. Explore options for participation in a treatment court without having to move to the location for the treatment court – This team conducted preliminary research and discovered that many counties were already successfully serving people outside their area, but they have varying practices to make that happen, such as agreements with misdemeanor probation to provide supervision. There are mixed opinions around the effectiveness of telehealth, but rural counties can benefit. The team shifted the focus on their work to identify best practices for telehealth and develop a resource for courts considering virtual treatment options. They are currently circulating a draft flyer.
4. Streamline process of entering treatment court to reach the targeted 50 days from arrest/PV to entrance into treatment court – This team began by conducting a baseline survey to treatment court managers to gauge treatment court entrance timelines.  (The results show that most treatment courts are not able to meet that 50-day target to get individuals into their program from time of incarceration.) They next began working with stakeholders at IDOC and Misdemeanor Probation Administrators to discuss process improvements to get individuals into treatment court faster during the PV process, such as using IDOC’s special progress report with the court before a PV is filed to ask the judge permission to refer their client to a treatment court in lieu of PV. They are drafting a flyer for treatment court recruitment for individuals in violation status without a filed PV.
5. Evaluate the ability to more effectively coordinate through programming and processes the transition from a rider to the community in a treatment court model – Beginning in Q4 2025, team members began preliminary research with program counselors at the Retained Jurisdiction BHU programs, about how they can apply for MHCs.