Curbing the 'revolving door' phenomenon with mentally impaired offenders: Applying a therapeutic jurisprudence lens.

This article considers the application of therapeutic jurisprudence principles in the context of the recent innovation of mental health courts, which are designed to enhance the “wellbeing” of mentally impaired offenders. It is argued that mental health courts have the potential to address the criminalisation of mentally impaired offenders by facilitating positive therapeutic outcomes and diverting mentally impaired offenders into treatment. In particular, mental health courts can facilitate successful treatment outcomes by minimising the use of coercion and ensuring that mentally impaired offenders are accorded a “voice” and treated with dignity and respect. Accordingly, the mental health court seeks to advance more integrative and holistic approaches to treatment which ideally should be informed by evidence-based practice. Ultimately, however, the success of any therapeutic intervention is contingent on mental health courts “brokering” relationships with community service providers in order to facilitate accessibility to treatment. The recent introduction of the Victorian Assessment and Referral Court (ARC) List, which aims to consolidate the management of mentally impaired offenders into a single court, is also briefly examined as a timely and promising initiative in curbing the “revolving door” phenomenon