Correlates of Mental Health Court Graduation Across Seven Texas Programmes: What Matters?

ABSTRACT

Background

Prior research indicates that mental health court graduates are more likely to be successful post-participation compared to non-completers. Therefore, it is important to understand factors associated with completion. Prior research indicates mixed results and often does not use multi-site samples, rather relying only on individual courts.

Aims

The present study examines demographic factors (race, sex and age), sociogenic factors (employment, education and housing) and criminal justice system factors (risk score, time spent in the programme and charge type) in relation to the odds of graduation from mental health courts across Texas.

Method

I used a logistic regression model to examine administrative data from 996 mental health court participants, collected by the court staff between 2016 and 2023.

Results

Hispanic participants were more likely to graduate than White participants. Those with less education, who were unemployed, and did not have permanent housing were less likely to succeed. Those who had higher recidivism risk scores were also less likely to graduate. Participant sex, age and charge type were not related to graduation status.

Conclusion

These findings help clarify the mixed prior literature surrounding the impact of race on graduation from mental health courts at least in these seven courts in Texas. Findings underscore the importance of education, employment and housing on success in mental health courts even though some prior studies do not find these factors to be associated with graduation. Texas programmes should work to improve the status of participants in these areas as they seem particularly salient in this context. Future research should be done to understand if findings would generalise outside of Texas.