BRIEF: Mental health clinic opens at Markham courthouse

May 02--Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart's office has established a mental health clinic and pilot diversion program at the Markham courthouse.

In partnership with Adler Community Health Services, part of Adler University, the pilot program will screen pre-bond detainees for their charge, background and mental health needs to see if they can be released on their own recognizance rather than incarcerated, according to a news release from Dart's office.

Bond court judges would have the option of releasing detainees charged with misdemeanors on the condition they report to the mental health clinic for regular treatment.

The clinic would be staffed by Adler University psychology students working under the supervision of licensed clinical psychologists, according to Dart's office.

The Markham clinic is an offshoot of the sheriff's Mental Health Transition Center, which launched in August 2014 and is next to the Cook County Jail compound.

In planning the location of the new clinic, Dart said his office focused on the south suburbs because of the 2012 closing of the state-operated Tinley Park Mental Health Center.

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