As a trial court judge in Tippecanoe County for 13 years and now as chief justice of the Indiana Supreme Court, Loretta Rush continues to see Hoosiers caught in the revolving door—they have a mental health crisis, get arrested, become incarcerated, get released, and then repeat the cycle over and over and over.
In annual report, Indiana Supreme Court describes higher caseload, mental-health problems
To help the judiciary address the mental health and substance use issues that are arriving in Indiana courtrooms daily, the state Supreme Court’s Office of Judicial Administration has established the Office of Behavioral Health and hired Brittany Kelly, a behavioral health specialist. Indiana is the 10th state in the country to embed a mental health professional in its judiciary.
“The reason we did that was because of the work we’ve done on mental health and substance abuse and learning that the court system is a primary referral source to get people to treatment,” Rush said of hiring the specialist. “We thought we should do better.”
Rush talked about the work of the courts and the just-released Indiana Supreme Court 2023-24 annual report at a news conference Tuesday.