Court in Hamilton County helps those with mental illness

HAMILTON COUNTY, Tenn. (WDEF) — Instead of staying in jail, a Dalton teacher accused of shooting a gun through his classroom window was taken to a hospital for a mental health evaluation, and then he’ll undergo treatment.

In Hamilton County, there’s a special court system that helps defendants who are struggling with mental illness.

The Hamilton County Mental Health Court was formed in July of 2015.

“We are a one stop shop for mental health consumers who are in the criminal justice system. So we take these justice involved individuals with mental health needs, we bring them out into the community and we give them the wrap around support and mental health treatment that they need for sustained recovery,” said Anna Protano-Biggs, director of the Hamilton County Mental Health Court.

Protano-Biggs says people are referred to the Mental Health Court.

“It is often through an attorney, an official application to mental health court. But sometime we get calls from loved ones, family members, inmates themselves in custody,” she said.

In order to be admitted, they require records.

“So for us in mental health court you need to have a diagnosed severe and persistent mental illness to come into our court. And so we look at records for that,” Protano-Biggs said.

Protano-Biggs says the program saves costs to the county because it’s 89 dollars a day to house a person and that does not include medications.

“So the mental health court decided to fill some of the gaps in the system and really help those people, while also saving money at the same time,” she said.

If there’s not a system put in place to help people struggling, Protano-Biggs says it becomes a revolving door.

“So what mental health court is designed to do is to help break that cycle, break that revolving door and in return transform individual’s lives, families’ lives, transform our community.”

Whitfield County does not have a mental health court yet, but a judge is working on developing one.