A California law taking effect in January will expand Gov. Gavin Newsom’s costly mental health court that’s been described as a failure by people involved with the program.
The so-called CARE court program, meant to link mentally ill and homeless people with treatment, has helped far fewer people than Newsom initially promised and hasn’t made a dent in street conditions since it was launched in 2023, according to a CalMatters investigation.
Launched in 2023, the CARE (Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment) court program allows family members, first responders and medical professionals to petition a judge to place a mentally ill person into treatment in lieu of a criminal case.
Newsom hyped CARE court as a “paradigm shift” in fixing street conditions as cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco struggled with high numbers of mentally ill or drug-addicted homeless people.
“There’s no compassion with people with their clothes off defecating and urinating in the middle of the streets, screaming and talking to themselves,” Newsom told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2022. “I’m increasingly outraged by what’s going on in the streets. I’m disgusted with it.”
But after roughly $328 million spent on CARE court since 2023, it’s resulted in just 684 “treatment agreements” — voluntary promises to seek care that are not enforceable — and just 22 court-ordered plans as of October, according to CalMatters.
“I look at it as a total failure,” Anita Fisher, a former CARE court advocate whose son suffers from serious mental illness, told CalMatters.
Starting next year, California is expanding the range of mental health conditions that qualify for CARE court, among other changes, in the hopes of reaching more people.
The state initially estimated that between 7,000 and 12,000 people statewide would quality for CARE court, but as of October, California courts had received 3,092 petitions and the majority were tossed out in counties like San Francisco and Los Angeles.
A combination of toothless policies — favoring voluntary treatment promises instead of punitive measures — and a lack of resources have resulted in CARE court helping very few people despite staggering costs, critics say.
The Assembly Judiciary Committee described CARE court as a “very expensive” endeavor, estimating it cost $713,000 per participant last year.
Many CARE court participants slipped through the cracks, leaving the families of indigent mentally ill people disillusioned, according to CalMatters.
In a statement, Newsom’s office defended CARE court and pinned the blame on counties for failing to deliver on its promises.
“Coercion rarely works with those who need care: Oftentimes these participants have been in and out of the criminal justice system and threatened with jail if they didn’t seek or succeed in treatment, which has not provided them with the stability they need,” said Newsom’s spokesperson in a statement.
Newsom’s office noted differences by counting, pointing to “amazing results” in areas like Humboldt and San Diego.
“The public has called for action and counties should be listening and acting with urgency — or voters will do it for them,” the spokesperson continued. “There’s no excuse for counties failing to deliver — and the variability in implementation that we are seeing now is completely unacceptable.”
