At the direction of President Judge Louis J. Farina, a court-driven task force plans to set up a mental health court in Lancaster County.

Like its predecessors, drug court and job court, mental health court is intended to let nonviolent offenders serve time in treatment programs instead of prison.

Farina appointed Mark Wilson, director of Adult Probation and Parole, to lead the task force, which will define how the court is to function in Lancaster County.

"Prison is never the best place for these individuals," said Wilson, whose career has involved working with mentally ill inmates after they are released from jail.

"They are not going to go there and get better," Wilson said. "I think the criminal justice system, as a whole, wasn't designed nor is it set up to handle and treat individuals with serious mental illness."

Wilson said he and Farina are hoping the court will be operating by late 2009.

To reach that goal, Wilson must secure funding and make sure all vested parties are supportive of the initiative.

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Funding is expected to come from a combination of state and federal sources, but county funding also may be necessary, said Wilson. His staff is already working on an application for a $200,000 state grant, announced last week by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency. Five or six counties statewide will secure grants to start mental health courts, according to a spokesperson for the PCCD.

The federal government allocated $6.5 million to the Bureau of Justice Assistance Justice and Mental Health Collaboration program in 2008. The grant categories, which include options for mental health courts, will be announced Monday, according to policy adviser Rebecca Rose.

Judge Farina said uncertainly about securing federal funding won't hold back the creation of Lancaster's mental health court — a program he says has "nothing but positives."

"We're going to do this whether we get federal money or not," Farina said.

Farina named Judge Margaret Miller, elected in November, to be in charge of the mental health court. She will lead the team that will operate the court.

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A supportive judge is critical to the success of any mental health court, Wilson said, based on his research of other successful courts. He's confident Miller will be that kind of judge.

Miller, who volunteered for the position, said she did some mental health defense work while she was in private practice.

"I've often had clients who were running into the criminal system, sometimes minor, sometimes major. They needed to be processed in the criminal system because there were consequences to their action," Miller said.

However, the penal system did not offer the rehabilitation and support systems the people needed to keep from re-offending, Miller said.

She believes the public will support a mental health court once people understand that offenders will be held accountable for their actions while they get the services they need.

A judge alone cannot assure the success of a court without the overall support of law enforcement, the legal community and the mental-health community, Wilson said.

More than 20 representatives from the three entities came to the first task-force meeting, held Jan. 31, to learn about mental health court and start exploring implementation. Three more task-force meetings are scheduled this year. The next is on April 14.

They're not yet open to the public. Wilson said he anticipates bringing the public into the discussion as the court becomes more defined.

During the next year, task-force representatives will decide on the operating details of the court.

No one yet knows what kind of crimes may be eligible for the specialty court and how criminal charges are to be handled — or how police and district magistrates would process mentally ill suspects differently — or if there are enough mental-health resources to handle the treatment programs the judge could require or exactly which diagnoses would be eligible.

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District Attorney Craig Stedman said in an e-mail that he "wholeheartedly" supports exploring the development of mental health court, but he's reserving his ultimate backing until specifics are determined.

"If there is a specialty court we can craft which assists in getting treatment to those in need without compromising public safety, then I would support it," Stedman said.

He said he favors safeguards that would scrutinize the type of cases and the defendants who are eligible for the court.

"Certainly, mentally ill defendants can, and sometimes do, commit serious crimes, and any new program must take this into account," he said in the e-mail.

Even if the law enforcement and legal communities figure out that they can make it work, the mental-health community also has to be sure it has the resources to treat the offenders with mental-health issues, said Jim Laughman, executive director of Lancaster County Mental Health and Mental Retardation program.

"If we don't have the treatment infrastructure in place, we're doomed for failure," Laughman said.

He said he plans to call a summit of mental health providers soon to assess resources and funding for the program.

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Regardless of the hurdles yet to be surmounted, Laughman said, he's thrilled the legal community is leading the way toward mental health courts.

He said he's encouraged that "everybody, universally, sees that we have to do something with individuals who are being criminalized for their mentally ill behavior."

In addition to improving lives, treatment might cut down on the number of mentally ill people cycling through the prison on minor offenses, Vincent Guarini, warden of Lancaster County Prison, said.

The decrease would not relieve the problem of overcrowding at the prison, he said, because he doesn't believe the numbers would be high enough.

However, the court may make it possible to increase the amount of time his mental-health staff members have to spend with mentally ill prisoners who have to be in prison.

Guarini estimates that 16 percent to 20 percent of prisoners at the county prison have a mental illness.

Laughman suspects that estimate is low. He said offenders who qualify for mental health court will decide if they want their case decided in the mental health court or the traditional court system.

"I think this (mental health court) will be the tougher choice for people," Laughman said, "because the expectations will be higher for the individual in here."

E-mail: lespenshade@lnpnews.com