The Revised ABA Criminal Justice Mental Health Standards: What Will Be the Impact for Criminal Defense Lawyers?

• In Event: Mental Disorder and Offending

Abstract

Over fifty years ago, President Kennedy signed the laws closing most of the facilities where people with mental disabilities were housed. Sadly, his dream that this population would live independently, supported by community-based treatment and services, has not come to pass. Instead, deinstitutionalization has become transinstitutionalization -- that is, people who otherwise would have been institutionalized are now in America's jails and prisons. In an effort to develop best practices for how various actors in the criminal justice system should deal with persons with mental disabilities, in the mid-80s, the American Bar Association adopted a set of Criminal Justice Mental Health Standards. In August, 2016, an updated and expanded set of Standards were adopted. New sections include definitions of basic terms, role of the attorney representing a defendant with mental disorders, roles of the judge and prosecutor in cases involving defendants with mental disorders, re-entry, and sentencing and post-conviction in capital cases. The Standards also contain revisions dealing with problem-solving courts, law enforcement, and use of experts.

Author

• Elizabeth Kelley, Attorney