The Waiting Room Effect: Why Diverting People With Mental Illness From Jails Requires Broad Structural and Systemic Change

Mental health courts have gained popularity as a strategy for diverting people with mental illness away from the traditional criminal legal system, where they are overrepresented. Using a composite case example, the author introduces the waiting room effect, whereby such diversion strategies may in some cases unintentionally reinforce the role of jails by relying on them as places to hold individuals awaiting access to scarce and overburdened community resources. The waiting room effect underscores the need for investment in mental health services and upstream (e.g., prebooking) diversion, targeted court reforms, and attention to the structural factors underlying the criminalization of mental illness.