‘My entire life is different.’ Local therapeutic court graduates speak at milestone event
Christina Taylor turned her life around while going through Thurston County’s mental health court program. When she entered, she was dealing with a criminal case and had been struggling with drug addiction, depression and anxiety.
Rather than face a traditional punishment, she got paired up with a care coordinator and regularly checked in with a judge.
“She was all up in my business all the time, but I felt like we became a family,” Taylor said of her care coordinator. “I looked forward to coming to the judge every week. It was not as bad as jail and they started to help me build my self-confidence because I had no self-confidence.”
Taylor, now 60, graduated from the two-year District Court program in 2022. Nowadays, she’s is working in a nursing home where she takes people to appointments. She’s also on the cusp of earning an associate’s degree from Centralia College next month.
“My entire life is different because of mental health court,” Taylor said. “I don’t know how to ever express how grateful I am for the court.”
Taylor has had some struggles since graduating, but she said she’s kept her “nose to the grindstone” and now looks forward to enjoying the rest of her life.
She shared her story during a recent event marking the 20th anniversary of Thurston County’s mental health court and 16th anniversary of veterans court.
These two deferral programs take a therapeutic approach to eligible people who are involved in the criminal legal system and living with mental illness. The primary aim of such courts is to provide support so the person won’t land back in the criminal justice system.
From the county’s Chandler Court in Olympia, District Court Judge Brett Buckley recognized the staff, judges and lawyers who have had a hand in the program as well as the participants who benefited from it.
Are these courts effective?
Buckley said the numbers show the programs are working. So far, he said there have been at least 232 graduates. Based on their own data, he said people who commit similar crimes but are not participants in the programs have a recidivism rate of about 55-60%. Meanwhile, he said those who do participate in mental health court have a recidivism rate of near 20% and those who participate in veterans court have a rate in the low teens.
Mental health and veteran courts are funded by the county’s 0.1% treatment sales tax. About 19% of funds collected by this tax are spent on the county’s treatment courts, which also include Drug Court and DUI Court, according to the county’s website.
Though it costs money to operate mental health and veterans court, Buckley said the programs save the county money because participants are less likely to occupy costly and limited beds in jail. Additionally, he said graduates often go on to increase their contributions to the community.
Prosecuting Attorney Jon Tunheim recalled a mental health court graduate who rebuilt his life after a string of convictions. He referred to this person as Tom.
Tunheim said he was a chief deputy prosecuting attorney in 2010 when he saw Tom’s name on a mental health court docket.
“Tom was one of those names I instantly recognized because he was constantly cycling through the system, both District Court and Superior Court,” Tunheim said. “I thought, ‘Who let this guy into the mental health court?’”
He said Tom had 36 criminal convictions and nearly five dozen arrests. He was skeptical, but then he learned how the program helped Tom address his undiagnosed depression, anxiety and substance use disorder.
“He was a completely different person than I’d ever seen before,” Tunheim said. “He so impressed me.”
Since his graduation, Tunheim said Tom has had no arrests and he’s grown into a successful local businessman.
George Banks, a veteran’s court graduate, credited the program with helping him achieve nine years of sobriety.
“This thing works, man, it really does,” Banks said. “It only works if you make it work and that’s the truth about it. You have to put it into practice in your everyday life because it gets hard.”
He said the program gave him the means to mourn his mother’s death two years ago without returning to alcohol.
“Losing my mom — I thought that was it,” Banks said. “I thought that was my turn back to alcohol, but so many things in my tool bag, so many people to reach out to, so many people to call — that just helped me to get out of that space. It’s because of this. Thank you.”
How does the program work?
People can be referred to the mental health or veterans court by anyone except themselves, according to the county’s website.
That includes a judge, law enforcement officer, probation officer, pretrial services officer, prosecutor, defense counsel, treatment provider or even a family member.
To be eligible for mental health court, people must have a qualifying open and unresolved criminal case filed in the jurisdiction of Thurston County, City of Lacey or City of Tumwater.
Participants also must have a qualifying mental health diagnosis, an objective risk assessment score below “high risk,” and there must be a nexus between their diagnosis and the criminal charge they are facing.
Veterans Court is specifically intended to help veterans or active-duty personnel that show a connection between their mental illness and military service. Participants in that program must meet that criteria in addition to the same criteria as mental health court.
Buckley said only the court or the prosecuting attorney can veto someone’s entrance into mental health or veterans court.
People with criminal cases in City of Olympia jurisdiction are not eligible for mental health and veteran courts at Thurston County District Court because Olympia still has its own municipal court that offers a similar community court program. However, that may change soon because the city is pursuing an interlocal agreement with Thurston County for district court services.
Buckley said many people have asked him how they can get people they know into the county’s mental health and veterans courts. Unfortunately for many, they have to commit a crime to be eligible.
“It’s a crime that you have to commit a crime to have access to these resources,” Buckley said. “When you do come to court, you’re going to get all kinds of resources that aren’t available to you if you haven’t committed a crime.”
Once someone enters the county’s mental health or veteran court, they are required to attend frequent in-person meetings with an assigned care coordinator.
The county’s website describes these coordinators as a cross between a probation counselor and therapeutic case manager. The coordinators help connect participants with resources, and make sure they are complying with court orders and staying sober.
Alex Ross, program manager for mental health and veterans court, said she’s seen the “amazing impact” these programs have had in the community and commended the care coordinators for their efforts.
“I thank them every day for the hard work that they do, working with their participants, getting them resources (and) making those connections,” Ross said. “It really is them that makes this program.”
Participants meet with the court weekly. Buckley said people come less frequently as they progress though the program until they reach the point where they can graduate.
“At that point, our hope is that they have achieved enough independence and confidence from the last two years that when they move out and away from the court, they can lead lives that are the lives they want to lead.”
This story was originally published June 2, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
