Abstract
Mental health courts (MHCs) represent an increasingly widespread approach to reducing criminal justice involvement of persons with mental illness through judicially supervised linkage to treatment and services. Whereas early MHCs were limited to individuals charged with nonviolent misdemeanors, more recent MHCs often include persons for which violence is a concern, such as those with histories of violence and felony arrests. Previous research has found that MHC participation can reduce the risk of community violence, yet research on what accounts for public safety benefits of MHCs is limited. This study evaluated the association between reduction in homelessness and violence risk in an MHC. Homelessness is common among justice-involved persons with mental illness, is a risk factor for recidivism, and may be reduced by MHC participation. This study compared rates of homelessness and violence over time for 88 participants who entered an MHC and 81 individuals who received treatment as usual (TAU), and evaluated homelessness as a mediator underlying public safety outcomes of MHC. Although the two groups had similar rates of homelessness at baseline, MHC participants were significantly less likely to be homeless at follow-up compared with the TAU group. For both groups, homelessness was positively related to violence during follow-up. Homelessness emerged as a significant mediator of the relationship between MHC participation and risk for violence during follow-up. The results suggest that reduction in homelessness can help explain favorable public safety outcomes of an MHC.