Proposed Court for Mentally ill Criminal Offenders: WA

Under a $5 million two year pilot program to begin next year, mentally ill criminal offenders in Western Australia will be diverted to a special court and will receive community-based treatment before they are sentenced.

The Law Society of WA is quoted in an ABC report on the development as indicating that the "proposed court for mentally ill criminal offenders highlights the profound shift in the way West Australians think about mental health". The report also points out that other states have already implemented similar schemes for this type of court. A spokesman for the WA Law Society society Christopher Kendall is quoted as saying that  "mental health courts allow offenders to be monitored in therapeutic environments while still addressing the public's safety concerns . . .I think there has been, as I've said, a profound shift in the way in which people think about mental health".

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