MacArthur Mental Health Court Study

The MacArthur Mental Health Court (MHC) project is a longitudinal study examining the effectiveness of these specialty courts in reducing recidivism, reducing the number of jail days and stays, and increasing access to community mental health and substance use treatment. The study included four data collection sites (two in CA, one in MN, and one in IN), two samples (newly enrolled MHC clients and a comparison sample of offenders with mental illness in the traditional criminal justice system), two interview time points (baseline and 6-month follow-up), and the collection of objective criminal justice and court data up to 18 months post-enrollment in the MHC/post-arrest. This comprehensive project was funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Network on Community Mandated Treatment, led by Professor John Monahan, and was conducted by Policy Research Associates (Principal Investigator: Dr. Henry J. Steadman).