Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli thinks mental health court could save taxpayers money and address treatment issues that could keep some defendants with mental illness from reoffending.

(Express-Times File Photo)

People with mental illnesses are often misunderstood, mistreated and ostracized.

People with mental illnesses who commit crimes can experience even worse.

Too many of them end up in prison where they don’t belong and where the cycle of mistreatment can continue at the hands of both inmates and prison personnel.

If you don’t think it happens, you’re fooling yourself.

On Monday, Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli threw his support behind an idea that could solve this problem while, at the same time, save taxpayers money and help keep our communities safer.

It's called mental health court and it's being used in other places, including Philadelphia and parts of New York State.

The goal is to channel nonviolent criminal offenders with mental health problems such as schizophrenia and severe depression into the treatment programs they need instead of into jail cells.

“Incarcerating individuals with mental illness -- often on misdemeanor charges -- places an unrealistic burden on our correction facilities with minimal hope of reducing recidivism. It is expensive, ineffective and inhumane,” Morganelli said at a news conference.

Morganelli made it clear that sex offenders, violent offenders and those whose primary addiction is drugs belong in criminal court, not mental health court.

The Northampton County Criminal Justice Advisory Board wants to explore the creation of a mental health court and county Executive John Brown has expressed interest, as well.

What’s not to like about a program that could save money, reduce the burden on the criminal court system and give mentally ill defendants tools they need to live among everyone else in peace?

Of course, the devil is in the details.

A logical starting point is to examine existing programs in other communities to learn what works and what doesn’t work.

But, at least at first blush, this sounds like the kind of program that — done right — could provide the proper balance of justice, treatment and public safety.