Castellano Presents ‘Cultural Practice of Therapeutic Jurisprudence in Felony Mental Health Courts’

Dr. Ursula Castellano, Associate Professor of Sociology, presented “The Cultural Practice of Therapeutic Jurisprudence in Felony Mental Health Courts” at the 34th International Congress of Law and Mental Health in Vienna, Austria, in July.

She was invited to speak on the Mental Health Courts panel by well-known sociologist and mental health court researcher Dr. Virginia Hiday. Castellano’s travel was supported in part by an International Travel Award.

The International Academy of Law and Mental Health (IALMH) is founded on the belief that issues arising from the interaction of law and mental health can be best addressed through multidisciplinary and cross-national approaches, drawing on law, the health professions, the social sciences, and the humanities. Every two years, the IALMH holds an International Congress on Law and Mental Health, bringing together the international community of researchers, academics, practitioners and professionals in the field, whose wide-ranging perspectives provide for a comprehensive look at important law and mental health issues.

Abstract: The principles of therapeutic jurisprudence are widely adopted by mental health courts (MHCs), yet few studies critically examine how staffers maximize the positive aspects of law without subverting the standards of procedural justice. This paper reports on findings from an ethnographic study of two felony MHCs and focuses on how and why court professionals challenge judicial decisions to sanction noncompliance for serious offenders. The author identifies rhetorical, symbolic and material resources that MHCs staffers draw upon to defend against perceived treatment inequalities and due process violations for participants charged with noncompliance. This empirical issue is particularly salient in felony courts since the legal stakes are higher for participants facing prison terms. The data, in turn, reveals how MHC teams reconcile conflicting institutional perspectives on how to respond to problem cases. Implications for theory and research on the cultural practice of therapeutic jurisprudence in mental health courts are discussed.