A. This section shall be known and may be cited as the “Anna McBride Act”.
B. Any district or municipal court of this state may establish a mental health court program pursuant to the provisions of this section, subject to the availability of funds.
C. The court may request assistance from the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services which shall be the primary agency to assist in developing and implementing a mental health court program.
D. For purposes of this section, “mental health court” means a judicial process that utilizes specially trained court personnel to expedite a case and explore alternatives to incarceration for an offender charged with criminal offenses other than a crime listed in paragraph 2 of Section 571 of Title 57 of the Oklahoma Statutes who has a mental illness or a developmental disability, or a co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse disorder. The district attorney’s office may use discretion in the prosecution of an offender specified in this subsection subject to the restrictions provided in subsection E of this section.
E. The court shall have the authority to exclude from mental health court any offender arrested or charged with any violent offense or any offender who has a prior felony conviction in this state or another state for a violent offense. Eligibility and entry by an offender into the mental health court program is dependent upon prior approval of the district attorney. Eligible offenses may further be restricted by the rules of the specific mental health court program. The court shall have the authority to exclude persons from mental health court who have a propensity for violence.
F. The mental health court judge shall recognize relapses and restarts in the program which shall be considered as part of the rehabilitation and recovery process. The court shall accomplish monitoring and offender accountability by ordering progressively increasing sanctions or providing incentives, rather than removing the offender from the program when a violation occurs, except when the conduct of the offender requires revocation from the program. Any revocation from the mental health court program shall require notice to the offender and other participating parties in the case and a revocation hearing. At the revocation hearing, if the offender is found to have violated the conditions of the plea agreement or performance contract and disciplinary sanctions have been insufficient to gain compliance, the offender shall be revoked from the program and sentenced for the offense as provided in the plea agreement.
G. Any criminal case which has been filed and processed in the traditional manner shall be cross-referenced to a mental health court case file by the court clerk if the case is subsequently assigned to a mental health court program. The originating criminal case file shall remain open to public inspection. The court shall determine what information or pleadings are to be retained in the mental health case court file, which shall be closed to public inspection.
Added by Laws 2002, c. 285, § 1. Amended by Laws 2003, c. 76, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2003; Laws 2014, c. 180, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2014; Laws 2021, c. 170, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2021.