Voices for Voices®

The Mental Health Crisis in Our Justice System | Episode 159

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 159

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The Mental Health Crisis in Our Justice System | Episode 159

Chapter Markers
0:01 Judge Breaux Interview on Vocal Advocates
12:12 Justice System and Reentry Services
19:17 Celebrating Sixth Anniversary and Judicial Work

This episode reveals the transformative efforts of HOPE Court in addressing the challenges faced by individuals with mental health diagnoses within the criminal justice system. Judge Alison Breaux shares her journey in founding HOPE Court, the importance of community support, the educational pathways into law, and the critical role of family in managing mental health issues.
• Discussion on the founding and goals of HOPE Court
• Eligibility criteria and referral processes for participants
• Importance of public legal literacy and accessible information
• Insights into diverse education pathways in law
• Emphasis on community involvement and volunteering
• Role of NAMI in supporting families affected by mental illness
• Celebration of community connection through activities like kickball
• Challenges faced by judges in managing emotional work
• Overview of mental health resources for reintegrating individuals
• Reflections on the importance of courtroom security

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Speaker 1:

Happy New Year and welcome to the 2025 edition, which is actually now season four, of our Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I'm Justin Allen Hayes, your host, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices. Thank you for all the support you've given us over the years. We couldn't do this without you. If you're able to, if you can like, share, subscribe, follow. We're on all audio video platforms, as well as Hudson Community Television, which you'll be obviously viewing this for the first time on January 1st of 2025. And we're going to go ahead and get started.

Speaker 1:

We are beyond excited and honored to have our guest in studio today. Many of you will have noticed her from an earlier episode that we filmed and aired last year, and it's still available, so we'll get right into it. So our guest in studio sits on the bench at the Summit County Court of Common Pleas. She is also the founder of Hope Court and, lastly, is a recipient of our 2023 Voices for Voices Ambassador of the Year Award from last year, which we were able to present last year at our brand new day gala, and so we're grateful to have her in studio. So, without further ado, judge Allison Brough, thank you for joining us today, of course.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm so happy to be here. I'm honored, thank you.

Speaker 1:

You're welcome. Maybe we could start with Hope Court Sure what that is and how you got this started. We talked a little bit last year about it, but there may be some viewers and listeners that might not have caught that Sure.

Speaker 2:

So Hope Court is our felony mental health court in Summit County. So Summit County has a lot of different specialized dockets which are designed to assist certain individuals as they move through the criminal justice system. So Hope Court is for those who have been diagnosed with a mental illness. So it's a program that I started back in 2018. And we in October, on the 1st, just celebrated our sixth year of being up in existence.

Speaker 1:

Wow, that's awesome when the years start stacking up. When you're into weeds it's a lot of work. But then when you take that step back and go, wow, this is our 6th year.

Speaker 2:

So true, and we're the youngest of the specialized dockets, but it does feel like we've done a lot in the 6 years we've been around, so we're happy about that.

Speaker 1:

Great. So how did you become interested in restorative justice?

Speaker 2:

So I was elected in 2016. So I took the bench in early 2017. I quickly realized the intersection of the criminal justice system and folks who were struggling with mental illness. At that time we didn't have a felony mental health court. Even though we had some municipal courts that were designed for mental health, we didn't have one at the felony level. So I kind of took that year as to just kind of study the process and see if I could maybe put some things together within my own court that I might mirror if I did start a new court. And in that meantime I also was meeting with other stakeholders and partners and departments and organizations that help individuals who are diagnosed with mental illness. So I was meeting with them simultaneously to determine if they thought that there was a need for this in Summit County and everybody said yes. So it was something that I knew that I would have support.

Speaker 1:

It was just a matter of putting it together yeah, I mean, that's an incredible uh, because that's in addition to the work you already do. It's an additional right program it is so. It's additional resources, which a lot of times is your brain.

Speaker 2:

It is, yeah, very very much so, and I had met with, I was assigned a mentor. As a new judge, you always get paired up with a mentor, and so I told the mentor I said, listen, I want to start a mental health court, and he said you need to sit down for a minute and and just do this work for a year. And so that's why I took that year to kind of study what I wanted to do, once I was able to get it up and running in 2018.

Speaker 1:

Wow, how do those individuals that are able to, I guess, qualify for Hope Court? How do they find out about Hope Court? Is it just through the process of when the case goes through the system?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so it's partly that we have a lot of points of interception when a person gets arraigned or gets indicted or even arrested, so family members can refer individuals, and then referrals can also be made through attorneys. So it could be a defense attorney that's representing somebody, it could be our pretrial services department. They are the individual that meet with people once they have been arrested and they're determining what kind of a bond bond do they need, if they need additional programming, etc. So sometimes things are flagged at that time and then it could be a referring judge. So there's a bunch of different places where referrals can be made okay, I'm going to jump a little bit ahead.

Speaker 1:

I think this is a good spot. When people hear about the law and what the laws are, and it just they hear that, that term or that, that statement. Where can an individual, just like an average person, learn about the law if they don't want to be go for their Juris Doctorate or just curious?

Speaker 2:

Well, you know the internet's a great thing, so you know it's a and a curse. So there's a lot of information out there. You just have to double check that you're getting accurate information. So our statutes are written and they're contained in the Ohio Revised Code. So as long as you're getting the actual statute, then you're getting the straightforward law. Although it's not always terribly easy to read, it is written in legalese. So as long as you're getting accurate information, you can utilize the web.

Speaker 1:

Great For those individuals that may be thinking about going into criminal justice. Can you give we did talk a little bit about this last year as well some of the key things as you went through kind of your education and then as you got started as an attorney and then a judge, you know a lot of reading and those types of things.

Speaker 2:

Definitely. So obviously you know, graduate from high school, go to undergrad you can. Really you can major in almost anything and go into law school. So pre-law a lot of people think that's the track, but you can do a million different things. I was an English major and I went into law school afterwards. So three years of law school, typically unless you go at night, if that's for folks who usually work full-time during the day and want to be night students so it's a three or four-year program and then after that you go and you determine what kind of law you want to go into.

Speaker 2:

I actually did civil law when I first became a lawyer in 2001. Did that for several years and then I went and started doing criminal defense work. So it's just a matter. You know, when you're in law school you have so much exposure to different kinds of law. There's things that are on the bar exam that you have to take because you want to prepare yourself to take the bar, and then there's a lot of electives. It's very much like college, and then you can kind of in those courses determine what interests you, what you like, and then when you start your practice it just depends. I started in civil law. I thought that's what I wanted to do, but I determined that I didn't. So there's so many opportunities and you don't even have to practice law. There are a million different jobs that you can get with a law degree. So I think it's great, great foundation for any sort of career.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it's good to know that. Just on a human level, we sometimes try things and it might not work or might not like it, and then we can pivot and go in a different direction.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely Let things happen organically is what I say. So yeah, there's lots of room for figuring it out.

Speaker 1:

Great. So we talked just a little bit back and forth on email about Hope Court and volunteering for an organization or an individual. That's like, hey, is there anything I can do to help a process?

Speaker 2:

specifically with Hope Court or just in general.

Speaker 1:

It kind of I guess in the criminal justice process and then if there is or are ways and Hope Court so Summit County is really, really rich in resources.

Speaker 2:

We have so many different agencies and organizations that are dedicated to individuals who are struggling not just with mental health but with substance use, with domestic violence, you name it. We have an array of organizations, so it just depends on what you're interested in and then you know. You kind of just like you can refer back to the, the good old, you know google and see what, see what's out there, see what interests you and see what kind of opportunities there are to get involved right, and I think that that's the the best way is have individuals bind on on their own, as opposed to being pushed in a certain direction that they're able to search and find.

Speaker 2:

They might try something and they might not like it, although you have to be careful because it can be overwhelming when you don't really know. But it's good. Most of the organizations that are in Summit County are really, really open-door policies. They're willing to sit down with anybody. So if you're interested, then I would just pick up the phone, make some phone calls, maybe visit the place, things like that.

Speaker 1:

But there's lots of opportunity to volunteer, right? How did you become a public speaker? And I know that's part of your job.

Speaker 2:

We have to because we do a lot of public speaking as judges, but it's not something that I'm, because we do a lot of public speaking as judges, but it's not something that I'm terribly good at. So it always gives me a little, my nerves are up and so it's not my forte. But you know, because of the work that we do, we are and there's an audience at a lot of times, especially the court work that we're doing. So you could just kind of it's like practice. You know, the more you do it, the better you get at it at. The more you do it, the better you get at it at least in that venue.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and you do a lot of public speaking outside of the court as well, so you speak in front of audiences, sure.

Speaker 2:

I really like speaking about mental health and about Hope Court and the work we're doing there. It's kind of like that's my passion. So when you're passionate about something, it makes it a little easier to talk about it, so that's what I prefer to speak about whenever I meet with folks.

Speaker 1:

Great. So individuals, members of society and specific in Summit County, they're able to participate in the criminal justice system and one of those ways is through jury service. You're able to walk through the different kinds of jury service.

Speaker 2:

So jury service I know a lot of people want to shy away from it. They don't want to do it. It's a big obligation and it is it really is. You know it takes time out of your busy life. Everyone's busy. We all have families, we have jobs, we have responsibilities, we have many different tasks that we're responsible for. So it plucks you out of that and puts you in a place that is kind of unknown and foreign.

Speaker 2:

But I will tell you that it is such a great experience and we pull people once they've finished their service, and nine out of 10 times they're glad that they did it. They learned a lot and they found it to be a really rewarding experience. So when you get that letter in the mail, don't try to think of a million excuses to get out of it. You know there's certain hardships, so we appreciate those things. So if you have a vacation planned or medical procedure or something like that, you can get out of it, and we don't want anything to be a financial hardship, but we do want people to kind of go in open-minded because you know that's the best way to serve your community is to vote and to also be a part of what's going on in our justice system, so I encourage people to take advantage of that when they are given the opportunity.

Speaker 1:

And then you just described at a high level difference between the pettit jury versus the grand jury.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so most of the cases start at the grand jury level. So once a person is arrested, then their case will go to the grand jury. And the grand jury is made up of civilians, people who vote and are chosen after an interview process and they're the ones who determine whether or not the case should go forward. So is there enough evidence for the case to go forward? It's not beyond a reasonable doubt. At that point the burden is much lower. So those folks just determine whether or not the case is going to be indicted. Once it's indicted, then it has a formal arraignment, which is when you read your formal charges, and it doesn't have to be unanimous as well. So that's a little bit different.

Speaker 2:

So there's a couple of nuances for grand jury versus pettit jury. Now, pettit jury is what you see on TV. You know. That's your trial cases. Both civil and criminal cases can go to trial. That's when it has to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The burden has to be met by either the state in a criminal case or by the plaintiff in a civil case, and if that happens, then they get to render a verdict.

Speaker 1:

And then, as far as trials, some can be short, some can be long, and then, with the grand jury, you're sitting for a period of time.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so our grand jurors sit for two months, so it's a big obligation, but they sit for two months and in that time they're hearing 700 to 800 cases in that time frame. So it's pretty quick. You often only hear from maybe one or two witnesses that are presented by the state and then the grand jury sits and they vote and if there's enough votes to indict the person, then it gets indicted and then it moves forward in the process. Otherwise it would be no billed and there would be no charges.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and then it moves forward in the process. Otherwise it would be no build and there would be no charges. Okay, and that's more of a secretive process. It's kind of happening out of the public eye. Yes, yes.

Speaker 2:

And then with the pedigree, those, like you said, could last a really long time just for one specific trial. So we have trials that only last just a day, and then you can have trials that last weeks and sometimes months.

Speaker 1:

That's pretty rare, but they can last up to several weeks. So individuals who, for one reason or another, find themselves incarcerated given the penalties of what they've done, how the jury comes back if it's a judge trial, a bench trial, versus having the jurors and individuals once they go through that process if they're able to. Obviously there's certain crimes where individuals won't be returning to society or as returning citizens.

Speaker 2:

For more severe things. Yes, for sure.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so individuals that kind of put their time in and are able to, they've met all the criteria and they're released kind of back into society. I know there's a lot of ways that organizations can reach out and help individuals like, OK, where am I going to stay? Where am I going to find my next meal? Sure, and those types of things and I know you can't speak specifically but just on a broad scale how important do you think those types of services are when an individual does reach that point, where they come?

Speaker 2:

I think it really depends on the individual. So some folks end up having to serve a consequence and be held accountable for something, but they might have a really good support system outside of that. So those folks might reintegrate okay. But for a lot of folks who are sentenced to prison whether they're getting released early on a judicial release, which is like a request to be released prior to the end of your sentence, or if you've served your full sentence that reentry piece is really, really crucial Because no matter how long you've been incarcerated, it takes a toll on an individual.

Speaker 2:

So I think getting them into services it doesn't always have to be a halfway house or something like that, a residential program, but even just having those reentry services dealing with some of the things that maybe were the reason that the person was incarcerated in the first place because they weren't dealing with certain aspects of their life. So it could be substance abuse, could be mental health, could be a lot of different things. So it's great. That's a great fresh start for folks to get the help that they need.

Speaker 1:

Great and you also serve, I still believe, on the NAMI board of directors.

Speaker 2:

I'm on the NAMI board and it's great work. Nami does really really great work, not just for folks with mental illness diagnoses, but also for their families.

Speaker 1:

Can you talk to us a little bit about the family piece, of how that's important and when an individual is diagnosed, that it's not just affecting that individual?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, mental health is really a family disease, especially for families that have a young person who has maybe had their first psychotic break, and this is really, really unknown territory. Nami offers different classes and programs for families. One of them is called Family to Family. They can hear from individuals who have gone through this process, who have successfully navigated this process, and give them the resources and just the understanding and the education that they need to know what to expect and to know the pitfalls, the highs, the lows, because it can be a very, very troubling journey.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Trying to think We've kind of gotten through a lot of the information that I wanted to chat about. Are there any other areas that you want to touch on or just put out there for informational purposes?

Speaker 2:

Well, you know, we can always talk a little bit more about Hope Court. You know the successes that we've had in Hope Court. So it's a two-year program, give or take. You know, some folks have gone through really quickly because they've really just done well, and some folks take a little longer. There can be things that happen throughout the course of the time that they're in the program that put them at a little bit of a setback.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes that's relapse, sometimes that's a tragedy that happens in someone's life that really can trigger them to go kind of inward and not keep going on the positive path that we want them to go on. But it usually takes about two years and so since we've had, since we've been up and running, we've really only been able to have about three, four years of successes. Right, but our success rate is really great right now. Our recidivism is really really great right now. So we're really reaching some folks who haven't really struggled with their mental health and have also been in and out of prison, been in and out of hospitals, jails, in and out of hospitals, jails, et cetera, as they have been unsuccessfully navigating their mental health and now they have something different. So we're really proud of that work and on October 1st we had our sixth-year anniversary. In the fall we always do an anniversary party and we invite all our participants.

Speaker 2:

We invite their friends and family to come. We serve food. This year we did a kickball game and it was so fabulous to see everybody just cheering each other on and getting competitive in a really safe place and doing a really pro-social activity and it was wonderful to see everybody smiling and laughing and just the camaraderie that's developing between the team and the participants and each other and their families. It was a really really positive, positive day for us.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, that relationship of just having somebody that cares, yeah, and just to cheer somebody on.

Speaker 2:

You know, it really is just. It's really, really heartwarming.

Speaker 1:

It's really heartwarming and it doesn't cost any money, like those. Those types of things are just being an individual, a human being.

Speaker 2:

Exactly Just a kickball and a couple cones, and we just had a really really great day. It was beautiful weather, it wasn't too hot, it wasn't raining, so we had a really really great day it was nice.

Speaker 1:

Well, congratulations on the sixth anniversary. Thanks, that's big.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. Yeah, we're really proud of it. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I think the last area I want to touch on being the mental health. We all have mental health, just theory and degree. So I was diagnosed, so I'm not what have you. But as a judge, you're seeing different types of cases coming through your docket, Seeing different types of cases come coming through your docket. How do you say separate the work from, like your home, your personal life, or is there a cross section? Is that tough?

Speaker 2:

You know it is. It's difficult work, not just even the mental health piece, but you know the work that we do is difficult work. We see things, we hear things. We have to deal with the outcomes that. But you know the work that we do is is difficult work. We see things, we hear things. We um have to deal with the outcomes that we you know our decisions and and the outcomes that are that fall from those um always being scrutinized for the decisions that we make, Cause, no, inevitably somebody is going to be disappointed with what we do and how we decide things.

Speaker 2:

So, um, you know being able to compartmentalize things is really important, but you do have to keep your eye on, you know, compassion, fatigue and secondary trauma and things of that nature. So you know we do. You know, in our judicial conferences and even just speaking with our fellow colleagues, you know it's something that we do try to keep an eye on and you know, sometimes just talking about it with somebody else who can share that experience is really, really helpful yeah, and I found that personally helpful that speaking with somebody about just kind of what's going on it's a way to almost kind of generalize what's happening and kind of gets it out of the group therapy sometimes, you know just being able to kind of share and then hear somebody else's experience and know, well, I'm not really alone and how do you deal with this and how do you manage that.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, it is really helpful.

Speaker 1:

And then I just have another thought the criminal justice process you being a judge and let's say, in a criminal proceeding there's a prosecutor and defense attorney how important are kind of having those elements involved in a trial as far as making sure the defendant whether people like them or not that they're getting representation and the prosecutor is also being held to a standard as well.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we're really lucky. We deal with really really great attorneys on both sides In Summit County most of our criminal defendants are represented by private attorneys and then, you know, anybody could retain somebody if they want. But we appoint private attorneys to represent individuals who are charged with felony crimes in Summit County. So you know, we are always kind of the gatekeepers to make sure that everybody is zealously representing their clients. On the state it's going to be the victim and it's going to be the community, and then obviously for the defense it's going to be that individual. So you know, but we don't typically have issues with representation not rising to the proper level.

Speaker 1:

And community members. Most trials are open to the public. Yeah, I'm guessing there. Maybe there's times that they're not, but in many cases yes, I mean on.

Speaker 2:

I would say the majority of cases and the majority of trials are open to the public. Individuals can come and watch. Sometimes spacing becomes a problem, so that's why it might you might have to navigate some of that, but we have technology that is accommodating for bigger trials. If you want to view from home things like that.

Speaker 1:

And how did the transition from pre-COVID to after COVID? Technology-wise, maybe some proceedings happened virtually versus in person.

Speaker 2:

So it was a work in progress. We did implement. We received a grant and we implemented a lot of high-tech technology into our courtrooms audio, video etc. And then we can still utilize a lot of that virtual court appearance technology, and we do Especially for individuals who are incarcerated. It's wonderful somebody is being housed in another jail or even has is maybe serving a prison sentence or even in federal prison. We're able to conduct those hearings without having to postpone everything to make sure that they come over.

Speaker 1:

So it's been really great to be able to do virtual hearings for for certain cases and I said last way, I think three times the security of just everybody in the court system that not only want to keep the defendant safe and all the security measures that come by with that, as well as judges and the attorneys. How important is that? Just to be able to continue justice, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean courtrooms need to be safe spaces for everybody involved. So we work with the Summit County Sheriff's Office. They're the ones who provide security to our courtrooms, so everybody is assigned to a specific deputy. But if we need additional security, for instance if something's a really contentious hearing, you can always ask for additional security. And obviously everybody who comes in the court building has to go through the metal detector. So but security is really really important because you know emotions are running high when you're in court. You know it's not everybody's best day, in most cases everyone's worst day. So when people are emotionally charged, they can act out. Things can happen. So we just have to be really, really careful and make sure that our courtrooms are safe.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, great. Well, our time has come and kind of gone.

Speaker 2:

Thank you very much for coming to the studio and sharing.

Speaker 1:

I continue to learn more about the criminal justice process, and especially here in Summit County, on the local level as well. Thank, you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's a pleasure to be back.

Speaker 1:

Thank you.

Speaker 2:

All right. Great, thank you so much, justin, it's great to see you.

Speaker 1:

Great to see you and thank you our viewers, our listeners, or, if you're checking out our transcript for joining us. Thank you for the support. Again, we're now in season four. Check out any number of our 150 episodes at this point. And again, happy New Year and until next time. I am your host, justin Allen Hayes, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, and please be a voice for you or somebody in need.

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