When the courthouse leads to the therapist's officeNew from CommonWealth Beacon BUDGET CHECK-UP: State budget-writers hosted an unusual mid-year checkup, Chris Lisinski reports. A likely slowdown, though one that that may stay shy of a full recession in Massachusetts, could force action in the next few months. RACE WIDENS: GOP booster and former medical device businessman Michael Minogue is entering the 2026 gubernatorial race. Colin Young of State House News…
New from CommonWealth Beacon
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BUDGET CHECK-UP: State budget-writers hosted an unusual mid-year checkup, Chris Lisinski reports. A likely slowdown, though one that that may stay shy of a full recession
in Massachusetts, could force action in the next few months.
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RACE WIDENS: GOP booster and former medical device businessman Michael Minogue is entering the 2026 gubernatorial race. Colin Young of State House News Service has the details.
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OPINION: The clear threat to Boston's public transit system is not crime or “vagrancy,” write Reggie Ramos, executive director of Transportation for Massachusetts, and Dwaign Tyndal, executive director of Alternatives for Community and Environment. It is the systematic clawing back of federal funding and the withdrawal of environmental justice and equity guidelines that seriously imperil how residents move.
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Accessing mental health support can be difficult under normal conditions, with a workforce shortage worsening long wait times for emergency or routine behavioral health care. But for almost 20 years, the Bay State has had a way to connect some people deeply in need of mental health services to intensive treatment, case management, and housing support.
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The catch? They have to be arrested first.
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A set of three Boston municipal courts and five district courts hold special sessions of mental health court, or “Recovery with Justice.” They offer a ramp off the usual judicial process for defendants on pre-trial or post-conviction probation with serious mental health issues. If defendants, their attorneys, the district attorney, and the courts sign off, the participants embark on a supervised process of mental health treatment and assistance with job and housing supports, if needed.
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They are an attempt – part of a national movement toward such specialty courts – to grapple with overlapping issues of mental health and criminal conduct.
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"There's been a whole bevy of studies and articles that show that incarcerating someone with a mental health condition only aggravates the underlying symptoms and the underlying conditions,” said Judge Kathleen Coffey, who founded the Massachusetts mental health courts in 2007 and retired in September after 32 years on the bench. “So, in many respects, when we criminalize mental health by locking people up rather than providing them with the access to treatment and the mental health services that they need, we're turning people into criminals, unnecessarily, unfairly, and a lot of times without due process.”
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The mental health courts make a compelling offer: If the participants agree to use it, the system will connect them with long-term and accessible mental health supports often out of reach for people in prison or just trying to navigate the crunched behavioral health landscape. But they are expensive, resource intensive, and serve just a fraction of the people in need of mental health services in and out of the criminal justice system.
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More from CommonWealth Beacon
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SOLAR: Facing hurdles as her administration works to achieve clean energy goals, Gov. Maura Healey convened a
summit with solar industry officials who urged her to embrace the power of the sun with haste. Jordan Wolman reports.
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POLITICS: With the federal government shut down, federal offices, national parks, and tourist attractions in Massachusetts are closed. (GBH News)
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EDUCATION: Massachusetts’s only federally funded pre-college program focused on veterans has been canceled by the Trump administration, after the US Department of Education notified Suffolk University that its grant for the Veterans Upward Bound program would end on September 30. (MassLive)
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MUNICIPAL MATTERS: The Worcester City Council voted unanimously in favor of urging UMass Chan Medical School to reinstate pay and benefits to medical students and voted 8-2 in favor of pledging not to enter into an agreement with federal immigration officials. (The Worcester Telegram – paywall)
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EDUCATION: A state inspector general investigation says Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School superintendent Roger Forget defied state bidding laws, funneled money to relatives, and used school-owned vehicles for personal matters. (Cape Cod Times – paywall)
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POLITICS: At an event in Dorchester, former Vice President Mike Pence reflects on the killing of Charlie Kirk and says President Trump should never have pardoned the rioters convicted of assaulting Capitol police officers and storming the Capitol building on January 6, 2021. (Dorchester Reporter)
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