Mental Health & the Courts - With Judge Kevin Allen

On Thursday Nov. 19, Judge Kevin Allen will be speaking at the Utah State Alumni House at 5:30 p.m. He will be discussing the evolving relationship between the courts and mentally ill, the mental health programs expanding across the country and the importance of these problem-solving courts.

Things to Know About Judge Allen:

·         Grew up in Cache County, Utah

·         Graduated from Brigham Young University as an undergraduate

·         Graduated from law school at the University of Oklahoma

·         Served as the President of the Cache County Bar Association

·         Was a member of the American Trial Lawyers Association and the American and Utah Bar Association’s Litigation, Real Property and Estate Planning Sections

·         Was appointed to the First District Court in March 2008 by Gov. Jon M. Huntsman, Jr.

·         Was instrumental in establishing the Intermountain Mental Health Court Conference held annually at USU

·         Serves as a member of the Utah Sentencing Commission and is serving on the Board of District Court Judges

·         Established and presides over the First District Mental Health Court

Things to know about the First District Mental Health Court*:

·         It is located in Logan, Utah

·         It is a diversionary court and a innovative method to jurisprudence that holds mentally ill offenders responsible for their actions without imprisonment

·         The court allows individuals with mental health problems, who have committed a nonviolent, nonsexual crime, to receive court-monitored treatment

·         It uses a narrow set of mental disorders like schizophrenia, major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder to decide a defendant’s eligibility

·         Judge Allen reached out to mental health experts and faculty members in the Utah State Department of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology to help him when he was starting the court

·         For individuals who enter the program, their sentencing is postponed until they successfully complete it – a process that takes an average of two years

Free pizza will be provided at the forum. Follow or tweet the event using #iogpforum

*Information was taken from Liberalis, The Alumni Magazine put out by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. To read the full article, “Changing a Life,” written by Kristen Munson and Jeremy Pugh, go here: http://liberalis.usu.edu/2014/spring/changing_a_life.php