A significant number of individuals with mental illness find themselves involved with Ohio’s adult and/or juvenile criminal justice systems. As a result, these systems have become de facto providers of psychological and psychiatric services. Often, individuals with mental illnesses cycle in and out of the criminal justice system because of gaps in services within communities.
To address this revolving-door problem, the Attorney General’s Task Force on Criminal Justice and Mental Illness was created in 2011. The task force evolved from the Advisory Committee on Mental Illness and the Courts (ACMIC), which Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton (now retired from the Ohio Supreme Court) started in 2001.
The task force is made up of state agency representatives, law enforcement officers, judges and mental health professionals who meet regularly to increase public safety and reduce the number of people with mental illness who are trapped in the criminal justice system.
For additional information about the task force, please email Michael Sheline at Donald.Sheline@OhioAGO.gov.