New court gives offenders with mental-health issues a second chance

For the last few years, Tiffany Eagle has struggled with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Eagle said they were mental-health issues she didn't know how to deal with. The only way she knew how to cope was self-medicating with drugs and alcohol, which she used heavily. She became an addict.

That addiction led to a very bad day for Eagle in December 2014. That's when she was arrested on charges of auto theft, resisting law enforcement with a vehicle and operating while intoxicated.

The charges threatened to ruin Eagle's life. She has three children, and receiving a felony conviction would make it hard to ever find a job or buy a car.

But today, Eagle said she has hope for the future.

That's because in November she was accepted into the recently established mental-health diversion program offered by Howard County Superior Court II.

The program, commonly referred to as a mental-health court or problem-solving court, got up and running in August, and Eagle was one of the first people to begin participating in it.

The program allows offenders suffering from a mental illness to get treatment rather than go to jail. Once they complete the program, their charges are permanently erased.

Superior Court II Judge Brant Parry, who oversees the program, said 11 offenders have been accepted to participate in the court so far.

The charges that got people into the program include theft, possession of paraphernalia, criminal mischief, fraud and criminal trespass, which are all low-level felonies or misdemeanors.

The offenses committed by the participants vary, but they all have one thing in common, Parry said. The offenses stemmed primarily from a mental illness, rather than some kind of criminal intent.

"If they've been charged with a crime, and the root cause was a result of a mental-health problem, we want to help them get treatment rather than be incarcerated," he said.

And that's exactly what the 11 participants have been getting since being accepted into the program.

The court has teamed up with a new program at Community Howard Regional Health called forensic-diversion care. The program was specifically created with funding from a state grant to get mental-health treatment to people in the criminal justice system in Howard, Tipton and Clinton counties.

Now, the hospital's program is offering wrap-around mental health services that are tailor-made for all the participants in the mental-health court.

For Eagle, the one-on-one therapy sessions and classes offered by the program have changed her life. She said for the first time, she understands why she used drugs and alcohol and behaved the way she did.

"Addicts use because we don't know how to handle what's going on inside our heads," Eagle said. "Everybody always tries to address the addiction, but the addiction is just a symptom of the underlying cause, which is a mental-health issue."

Participants also meet with a 10-person panel made up of prosecutors, probation officers, clinicians from both Community Howard and St. Vincent Kokomo hospitals, public defenders and Judge Parry.

During the bi-monthly sessions, the panel offers help and support, and makes sure participants are staying on their medication and following through with the program.

"We sit down with them, talk to them and let them know they have a support system," Parry said. "A lot of these people have never had a support system in place, so we try to let them know that we're here to support them, while still holding them accountable."

Eagle said having that support system has been instrumental in her recovery. In fact, she's been off drugs and alcohol for over a year now.

"It's very one-on-one and very personal," she said. "I feel like they're addressing me as a person, and not just a number."

But not everyone with a mental-health issue gets into the program. In fact, 55 people have been referred to the court by attorneys or probation officers, Parry said, and only 11 have currently been selected.

That's because the criteria for getting in is high. Offenders generally aren't allowed to participate if they have a history of violence, owe a lot of money in restitution, have a drunken-driving charge or suffer from a severe mental-health issue that could make them dangerous.

Also, potential candidates can be vetoed from participating by prosecutors and judges who think an offender shouldn't be allowed to leave jail or won't make a good fit with the program. Victims of a crime can also request that offenders be barred from the program.

"We want to help as many people as possible, but we also want to keep the community safe," Parry said.

The court has been hard at work helping participants for the last five months, but it's also gone a long way in helping staff at the Howard County jail, where officials estimate around 40 percent of inmates are taking medication to help treat a mental illness.

Jail Commander Robin Byers said in the past, trying to get help for an inmate suffering from a mental illness could be a complicated process.

Now, they have a direct line to the mental-health court to reach someone who can help.

Sheriff Steve Rogers, who has petitioned state legislators to create programs to keep mentally-ill people out of jail, said the best effect from the new program has been more open communication between the jail and the court system.

With the mental-health court, everyone is on the same page about where offenders stand, and what kind of help or medication they need.

"It's good to see us handling these people better than we have ever handled them before," Rogers said.

He said law enforcement officers will always have to deal with those suffering from a mental illness, but he's hopeful that, in the long run, the mental-health court will cut down on the number of mentally-ill inmates at the jail, which is a place that often only aggravates their symptoms.

"It's still a big issue for us, but knowing there's someone dedicated to looking at these cases through the mental-health court is helping us deal with these issues," Rogers said.

For Eagle, getting into the mental-health court has allowed her to leave jail, get a job and start saving up money for her three kids.

She'll be done with the program in a little over a year if she sticks with it. After that, the charges will disappear, and she can move on with her life as a drug-and-alcohol-free person who knows how to cope with her mental-health issues.

That's a life that never would have been possible without the county's mental-health court, Eagle said.

"I think it's an awesome program," she said. "It's new, but if I could refer anyone to it, I would. I think it's a program that's long overdue in Kokomo."