Posts Tagged: life-changing

Mental health courts cut costs, inmates, but lack oversight, data

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Brown. (Photo: Steinberg Institute)

by SIGRID BATHEN posted 11.12.2020

San Francisco attorney Jennifer Johnson views her life and legal trajectory as “life before and life after” a devastating 2016 homicide case that forever changed her view of how the courts treat defendants who are mentally ill. The case in San Francisco Superior Court involved an 85-year-old defendant, Don Rebello, who suffered from severe dementia.  Suddenly and for no apparent reason, he stabbed and killed his beloved friend and longtime roommate, Erik Kleins, 83 – two of three elderly men who had long shared a San Francisco home.

OPINION: During his 14 years in the Legislature, Darrell Steinberg has been an exemplary public servant and, arguably, the state’s greatest legislative champion of this marginalized and, oftentimes, stigmatized population. He achieved unprecedented success in expanding mental health services.