In early December, Donald Brown stood nervously within the Corridor County Courthouse, involved he’d be despatched again to jail.

The 55-year-old struggles with despair, dependancy, and suicidal ideas. He anxious a choose would terminate him from a particular diversion program meant to maintain folks with psychological sickness from being incarcerated. He was failing to maintain up with this system’s onerous work and group service necessities.

“I am sort of scared. I really feel sort of defeated,” Brown stated.

Final 12 months, Brown threatened to take his life with a gun and his household referred to as 911 in search of assist, he stated. The police arrived, and Brown was arrested and charged with a felony of firearm possession.

After months in jail, Brown was supplied entry to the Well being Empowerment Linkage and Potentialities, or HELP, Courtroom. If he pleaded responsible, he’d be linked to companies and keep away from jail time. But when he did not full this system, he’d presumably face incarceration.

“It is virtually like coercion,” Brown stated. “‘Right here, signal these papers and get out of jail.’ I really feel like I might have been handled quite a bit higher.”

Advocates, attorneys, clinicians, and researchers stated courts such because the one Brown is navigating can battle to stay as much as their promise. The diversion packages, they stated, are sometimes costly and resource-intensive, and serve fewer than 1% of the greater than 2 million individuals who have a critical psychological sickness and are booked into U.S. jails every year.

Individuals can really feel pressured to take plea offers and enter the courts, seeing the packages as the one path to get care or keep away from jail time. The courts are selective, due partially to political pressures on elected judges and prosecutors. Members should usually meet strict necessities that critics say aren’t treatment-focused, akin to common hearings and drug screenings.

And there’s a lack of conclusive proof on whether or not the courts assist members long-term. Some authorized consultants, like Lea Johnston, a professor of legislation on the College of Florida, fear the packages distract from extra significant investments in psychological well being sources.

Jails and prisons are usually not the place for people with psychological problems, she stated. “However I’m additionally undecided that psychological well being court docket is the answer.”

The nation’s first psychological well being court docket was established in Broward County, Florida, in 1997, “as a option to promote restoration and psychological well being wellness and keep away from criminalizing psychological well being issues.” The mannequin was replicated with hundreds of thousands in funding from such federal companies because the Substance Abuse and Psychological Well being Companies Administration and the Division of Justice.

Greater than 650 grownup and juvenile psychological well being courts have been operational as of 2022, in accordance with the Nationwide Remedy Courtroom Useful resource Middle. There isn’t any set option to run them. Usually, members obtain therapy plans and get linked to companies. Judges and psychological well being clinicians oversee their progress.

Researchers from the middle discovered little proof that the courts enhance members’ psychological well being or preserve them out of the prison justice system. “Few research … assess longer-term impacts” of the packages “past one 12 months after program exit,” stated a 2022 coverage temporary on psychological well being courts.

The courts work finest when paired with investments in companies akin to medical therapy, restoration packages, and housing and employment alternatives, stated Kristen DeVall, the middle’s co-director.

“If all of those different helps aren’t invested in, then it is sort of a wash,” she stated.

The courts needs to be seen as “one intervention in that bigger system,” DeVall stated, not “the one useful resource to serve people with psychological well being wants” who get caught up within the prison justice system.

Useful resource limitations may also improve the pressures to use for psychological well being court docket packages, stated Lisa M. Wayne, govt director of the Nationwide Affiliation of Felony Protection Attorneys. Individuals in search of assist may not really feel they’ve options.

“It’s not going to be individuals who can afford psychological well being intervention. It’s poor folks, marginalized people,” she stated.

Different court docket skeptics surprise concerning the bigger prices of the packages.

In a research of a psychological well being court docket in Pennsylvania, Johnston and a College of Florida colleague discovered members have been sentenced to longer time below authorities supervision than in the event that they’d gone via the common prison justice system.

“The larger downside is that they’re taking consideration away from extra necessary options that we needs to be investing in, like group psychological well being care,” Johnston stated.

When Melissa Vergara’s oldest son, Mychael Difrancisco, was arrested on felony gun prices in Queens in Might 2021, she thought he can be an excellent candidate for the New York Metropolis borough’s psychological well being court docket due to his prognosis of autism spectrum dysfunction and different behavioral well being circumstances.

She estimated she spent tens of hundreds of {dollars} to arrange Difrancisco’s case for consideration. In the meantime, her son sat in jail on Rikers Island, the place she stated he was assaulted a number of occasions and needed to get half a finger amputated after it was caught in a cell door.

Ultimately, his case was denied diversion into psychological well being court docket. Difrancisco, 22, is serving a jail sentence that could possibly be so long as 4 years and 6 months.

“There’s no actual urgency to assist folks with psychological well being struggles,” Vergara stated.

Critics fear such excessive bars to entry can lead the packages to exclude individuals who may gain advantage probably the most. Some courts do not enable these accused of violent or sexual crimes to take part. Prosecutors and judges can face strain from constituents which will cause them to block people accused of high-profile offenses.

And judges usually aren’t skilled to make selections about members’ care, stated Raji Edayathumangalam, senior coverage social employee with New York County Defender Companies.

“It’s inappropriate,” she stated. “We’re all licensed to apply in our completely different professions for a motive. I can’t present as much as do a hernia operation simply because I examine it or sat subsequent to a hernia surgeon.”

Psychological well being courts could be overly centered on necessities akin to drug testing, medicine compliance, and finishing workbook assignments, fairly than progress towards restoration and medical enchancment, Edayathumangalam stated.

Finishing the packages can depart some members with clear prison information. However failing to fulfill a program’s necessities can set off penalties — together with incarceration.

Throughout a latest listening to within the Clayton County Behavioral Well being Accountability Courtroom in suburban Atlanta, one girl left the courtroom in tears when Choose Shana Rooks Malone ordered her to report back to jail for a seven-day keep for “being dishonest” about whether or not she was taking court-required medicine.

It was her sixth infraction in this system — earlier penalties included written assignments and “bench obligation,” by which members should sit and take into consideration their participation in this system.

“I don’t prefer to incarcerate,” Malone stated. “That exact participant has had some challenges. I’m rooting for her. However all of the smaller penalties haven’t labored.”

Nonetheless, different members praised Malone and her program. And, typically, some say such diversion packages present a much-needed lifeline.

Michael Pastime, 32, of Gainesville was hooked on heroin and fentanyl when he was arrested for drug possession in August 2021. After entry into the HELP Courtroom program, he acquired sober, began taking medicine for nervousness and despair, and constructed a secure life.

“I did not know the place to succeed in out for assist,” he stated. “I acquired put in handcuffs, and it saved my life.”

At the same time as Donald Brown awaited his destiny, he stated he had began taking medicine to handle his despair and has stayed sober due to HELP Courtroom.

“I’ve realized a brand new lifestyle. As an alternative of getting excessive, I am studying to really feel issues now,” he stated.

Brown averted jail that early December day. A listening to to determine his destiny might occur within the subsequent few weeks. However even when he is allowed to stay in this system, Brown stated, he is anxious it is solely a matter of time earlier than he falls out of compliance.

“To attempt to enhance myself and get locked up for it’s only a kick within the intestine,” he stated. “I attempted actually laborious.”

KFF Well being Information senior correspondent Fred Clasen-Kelly contributed to this report.