For Immediate Release – October 9, 2007

Rep. Berry proposes mental health homicide review panel

AUGUSTA - Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, has submitted legislation to create a homicide review panel that will focus on the role that untreated or unidentified mental health issues may have had in the resulting crime.

“As recent news reports have made very clear, state policy makers need to work hand in hand with our correctional experts and mental health advocates to avoid unnecessary tragedy,” said Berry.  “We must ensure that mental health services are available and responsive in the community long before people end up in prison or the overburdened court system.” 

The proposed legislation will create an expert panel modeled on a current panel that reviews cases of homicide in which domestic violence is considered a factor.  The panel will engage in collaborative, multi-disciplinary case review of mental illness-related homicides for the purpose of developing recommendations for state and local government and other public and private entities to improve the coordinated community response to individuals, families and communities experiencing mental health crises.  The Attorney General’s office will administer and staff the panel.

“Year after year legislators hear that a lack of resources for community mental health services is leading to even higher expenditures of tax payer dollars in the courts and prisons,” said Berry.  “My hope is that this panel will provide the information necessary to avoid some of the most horrific results of this misallocation of resources.”

The panel will be tasked with collecting data, making system recommendations aimed at enhancing intervention services, building and preserving a library of resources regarding mental illness, supporting ongoing education about mental illness within the Office of the Attorney General and maintaining a centralized file of all cases reviewed by the panel.