The Myth of Compassion: How New York’s Mental Health Court/Jail Diversion System Punishes the People It Claims to Help

ETS Solutions
5 days ago
4 min read

Let’s stop pretending New York State’s “jail diversion” system is anything more than a shiny PR stunt slapped onto the rotting face of the criminal justice and mental health apparatus. They call it diversion, mental health court, treatment over punishment. They parade these feel-good phrases in front of the public like some kind of humanitarian breakthrough.

It’s bullshit.

If you’ve ever seen this system up close — or worse, been dragged through it — you know exactly what I mean. Diversion isn’t diversion. It’s rebranded punishment. It’s control dressed up as care. It’s a way to funnel people into the same bureaucratic gears, just with nicer language and a few pamphlets about recovery.

Let me tell you how the system actually works:

1. You don’t get diverted — you get detained in a different costume

New York’s mental health courts claim to “redirect people away from jail.”What they don’t advertise is that they just lock you into a longer, more tangled form of supervision.

Your choices?

Jail time or
Months — sometimes YEARS — of court mandates, drug tests, patronizing lectures, and enough red tape to strangle an elephant.

Diversion? No. It’s probation with mood lighting.

2. They don’t treat you — they process you

The system loves to gush about “support. ”Here’s the truth:

Most of these diversion programs have no real mental health care, just mandatory check-ins with overworked counselors reading off worksheets created in 1998.

People aren’t treated. They’re evaluated, categorized, monitored, documented, blamed, and recycled back into the system the second they show a real human emotion.

New York calls that “therapy.”

I call it administrative babysitting.

3. The providers are terrified of losing their funding, so they treat people like liabilities

Let’s say you’re anxious, depressed, overwhelmed — you know, actually struggling. Your provider’s biggest worry isn’t you. It’s keeping their contract, filling out the right forms, hitting their compliance numbers, and not getting blamed if you have a bad day.

So what do they do?

They cover their asses.

They overreact. They over-document. They send people to psych ERs for having feelings. They treat adults like “risk factors,” not human beings.

This isn’t diversion. It’s risk management theater.

4. Mental health court pretends to be voluntary — but you’re punished if you disagree

Ever try saying: “No, I don’t think that treatment makes sense for me”?Or:“That provider isn’t a fit”?

Mystical forces suddenly appear:

Threats of sanction
Threats of incarceration
Threats of “noncompliance”
Threats of losing your “opportunity”

Voluntary? No.

It’s coercion with a smile.

The court wants you compliant, not well.

5. The entire system is built to make the judges and administrators feel good, not to help people

New York State loves a program. A conference. A ribbon-cutting ceremony. A task force. Something that makes officials feel morally righteous because they’re “reforming” the system.

Meanwhile:

People are trapped. Families are drained. Lives are stalled. And the exact same harm continues, just under a more compassionate-sounding banner.

This isn’t reform. It’s redecorated oppression.

6. The people caught in it know the truth — and nobody listens to them

Ask anyone who’s been through these courts.Ask the people forced to attend mandated programs where they get treated like walking diagnoses.Ask the ones who were promised help but were met with:

judgment
surveillance
infantilization
endless hoops
endless paperwork
endless consequences for not being perfect

They’ll all tell you the same thing:

The system didn’t help me — it consumed me.

Because it was never built to support us. It was built to control us, pacify us, and report on us.

7. New York’s diversion model is failing because it was never designed to succeed

Let’s be honest:

A system that still believes “compliance = recovery”

A system that punishes people for symptoms

A system that confuses paperwork with care

A system that treats adults like case files

A system that replaces compassion with conditions

A system that measures success by recidivism statistics rather than humanity

…was doomed from the start.

Diversion in New York isn’t diversion. It’s the same old system wearing a cardigan instead of a badge.

If New York actually wanted to help people?

Then diversion would look like:

Housing first
Real therapy
Choice-based treatment
No coercion
Providers with caseloads that allow actual care
Judges who understand mental health isn’t a behavior problem
A system where people are partners, not problems
Support that heals, not supervises

But that’s not what we have. Not even close.

Until New York stops pretending and starts listening to the people who’ve survived this mess, the so-called diversion system will stay exactly what it is:

Punishment disguised as progress.

And we’re done being quiet about it.

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References

Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. (2014). Reforming mental health care in the criminal justice system. Bazelon Center. https://www.bazelon.org

DeMatteo, D., & Redlich, A. D. (2020). Coercion in mental health courts: Understanding court culture and participant experience. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 38(5), 508–523. https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.2485

Lurigio, A. J. (2016). The future of mental health courts: Transforming the criminal justice system. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 55(8), 573–583. https://doi.org/10.1080/10509674.2016.1233499

Mental Health America. (2022). Position statement 22: Involuntary mental health treatment. Mental Health America. https://mhanational.org

Redlich, A. D. (2010). Voluntary, but not really: Coercion in mental health court programs. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 16(3), 255–275. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018492

Redlich, A. D., Steadman, H. J., Monahan, J., Robbins, P. C., & Petrila, J. (2006). Patterns of practice in mental health courts: A national survey. Law and Human Behavior, 30(3), 347–362. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10979-006-9033-9

SAMHSA. (2019). Best practices for criminal justice diversion programs: A focus on people with mental and substance use disorders. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. https://www.samhsa.gov

Steadman, H. J., Redlich, A. D., Callahan, L., Clark Robbins, P., & Vesselinov, R. (2005). Effectiveness of mental health courts in reducing recidivism. American Journal of Psychiatry, 162(12), 2281–2288. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.162.12.2281

Urban Institute. (2021). Rethinking diversion in the criminal legal system. Urban Institute. https://www.urban.org

Vera Institute of Justice. (2020). It’s time to stop pretending: Diversion is not decarceration. Vera Institute of Justice. https://www.vera.org

Watson, A. C., Compton, M. T., & Pope, L. (2017). Crisis intervention teams and people with mental illness: Experiences, challenges, and benefits. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 44(2), 235–249. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854816679862 or.