Michigan's 1st Mental Health Court suspends operation.

In deference to the personnel needs of Circuit Court Probation and the lack of existing resources; Ionia County is, effective immediately, suspending operation of its mental health court.

The personnel commitment and thereby trying to do more with less; the lack of funding, available resources and dwindling attendance at mental health court team meetings; probably made this action essentially inevitable.

Please understand this is not a knee jerk response.  For a long time, the lack of resources and the alternative increased use of incarceration has been a legitimate concern.  Sending a person with mental health issues to prison to utilize the services available in prison or via the prison re-entry program is too often the best option for the probationer, but is still wrong, for all of the obvious reasons.  And, now understanding the personnel commitment by the probation department to the specialty courts, it’s a decision whose time has come.

A special thank you to everyone for your time and effort in trying to make our mental health court the best it can be.  It was and is appreciated.