The man with a magnetic smile radiated by looking at the certificate of graduation in his hands. He has arrived over two years since the arrest that landed him in prison.
The arrest would prove to be, gave him access to what he needed and helped him gain this proof of framed force.
“Before I was arrested, I felt helpless and I didn’t know where to get help,” said Johannes McCoy. “So I was really lost, and I ended up taking a bad way. In a way, I am a little grateful to have taken this path, because I was able to get the help I needed for this program. ”
This week, MCCOY has become one of the last graduates of the Behavioral Health Court, a specialized program of the San Diego Superior Court offered to a fraction of criminal defendants who have a diagnosis of a serious mental illness – generally schizophrenia, the schizo -affective disorder or the bipolar disorder.
It is a collaborative court, in which prosecutors, defense lawyers, probation agents and treatment providers work together to develop specialized plans for each participant.
It is a small program – around 100 places – and very intense, offering participants a group accommodation, advice and enveloping support, including medicines. It lasts a minimum of 18 months, although several people need more time. This program offers participants a chance to stabilize, gives them the tools to sail in life. Failure most likely means a return trip to prison, and for some, of prison, to serve time for the crime that landed them here to start. Success erases clean conviction.
McCoy and 25 others met on Monday on Monday to celebrate their very demanding offer.
The program, McCoy, said: “Give me the structure I needed. They gave me the advice I was looking for. “
The promotion of this spring is the most important of the 16 years of history of the collaborative court. When each of them started this program, they faced a crime accusation. Now they continue education and provide jobs. One person is registered with an automobile repair program in a local community college, and another works on a master’s degree in the San Diego State University.
Despite its successes, the Behavioral Health Court is under a cloud.
In recent months, the district prosecutor’s office has disagreed with judge Cindy Davis, who oversees the program. Prosecutors, dissatisfied with some of his decisions, pushed Davis to challenge themselves with mental health cases. She refused, with the exception of their first request, although the judge who inherited this affair is dressed up with Davis and gave him the case.
The showdown that followed landed at a courtyard of the state.
With the behind -the -scenes legal battle, the Behavioral Health Court took a body. No new defenders have been accepted in the program since December. Some 36 participants in the judicial program remain.
The celebration of Monday, during a lunch at the University of San Diego, did not reflect any of these troubles. Davis spoke about the crowd of growth and success of each graduate, highlighting their harshly won victories by subjecting requirements and challenges.
She knows each of the participants. Each month, they have to stand in her courtroom and speak with her, an audience that serves as recording and railings. It is, said Davis, where they “can travel the trip together”.
“This is an example of what works,” Davis told the public made graduates and families. The behavioral health court is “transformer,” she said. “I see where we start and where we meet. I am so proud of all of you, and so surprised by the transformations. ”
Last month in court, two of the new graduates were held in the Davis courtroom when they were the accusation that initially landed them. Davis hugged them. One of them wore a nice suit and brought his mother.
On Monday, the judge told stories of individual graduates. A man had emerged as a cheerleader for others in his group home, she said. A woman had undergone an “incredible loss” during her stay in the program but persevered.
She also read a declaration from the assistant public defender Melissa Tralla, who is assigned to court but could not attend on Monday. Tralla praised the perseverance of graduates as “extraordinary”.
“For those of us who are not personally afflicted by mental problems, we can only start understanding your difficulties,” wrote Tralla. “Thanks to your monthly audiences, you have shared experiences to hear voices that urge you to do harmful things, seeing things that others do not do, fighting against drug addiction, faced with the scars of physical and sexual abuses and many other traumatic experiences.
“I can’t imagine what you are going every day and how difficult this trip was.”
Each graduate has gone on stage, and most thanked the team that helped them to cross, a small army of advisers and providers of probation and more. A graduate shared that he had found help through group therapy and people who listen to “when there are confusing parts of life that I do not understand very well”.
At the tables, family members were proudly seated next to graduates. One brought his children and grandchildren. At the back of the room, Gregory Sizemore, 31, was seated with his sister, mother and grandmother. He smiled at his certificate. His grandmother stretched out quietly, put his hand on his knee and smiled.
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