WOODLAND — At first glance, Rayshawn Taylor didn’t appear to be a suitable fit for Yolo County’s Mental Health Court.
While the Yolo Superior Court specialty program targets offenders with serious mental illnesses — as Taylor has — it wasn’t clear at first whether Taylor’s condition was the driving force behind his violent criminal history.
A West Sacramento resident, the 44-year-old Taylor had been arrested three times — the first for assaulting his uncle with a deadly weapon, the second for robbery, and a third for resisting arrest. Two of his offenses resulted in state prison sentences.
Yolo County Probation Officer Steven Svetich, who reviewed Taylor’s referral for the MHC team, summed up his first impression like this: “There’s no chance in hell we’re taking this person.”
That outlook changed, however, when team members interviewed Taylor in person.
“We saw the human being in front of us, not the criminal on paper,” Svetich said, one who was remorseful, committed to understanding his mental health and motivated to improve his life. “You changed the way that we look at our referrals. We have to give people the opportunity to show us who they are.”
Last week, Taylor became the 12th graduate of Mental Health Court, a minimum 18-month, court-based treatment and monitoring program that seeks to increase participants’ treatment engagement while reducing their arrests, hospitalizations and jail time.
The program is a collaborative effort involving the court, Yolo County Probation Department, Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA), as well as the Public Defender and District Attorney’s offices.
Taylor’s graduation ceremony Tuesday filled Judge David Rosenberg’s courtroom with supporters, from friends and family to treatment providers to the law-enforcement officers who encountered him over the years.
“There is a lot of pride in the room right now, all about you,” Rosenberg said. “Your life has made a difference.”
One by one, members of the MHC team and audience members spoke in praise of Taylor and his positive transformation.
“It’s not often we get to see people get through whatever it is they’re battling and emerge on the other side,” said Rob Strange, deputy chief of the West Sacramento Police Department. “You’re becoming that brighter beacon every day for people that are out there.”
District Attorney Jeff Reisig also congratulated Taylor, presenting him with a baseball.
“In the DA’s Office we give out game balls to people who do amazing things as part of the team,” Reisig said. “You really hit a home run.”
Taylor’s post-graduation plan includes focusing on his full-time job as a crisis intervention worker and playing an active role in MHC’s alumni program, supporting current participants as they make their way through the program’s four phases.
When it was his turn to speak, Taylor thanked the members of the MHC team and the fellow clients who became his friends.
“I’m glad this day has come. I hope to continue to do good, do well,” Taylor said. From the audience, his uncle responded, “You will!”
Progression through MHC’s four phases includes increasing days of sobriety, writing a reflective essay at the end of each phase, and consistently participating in treatment. The program allows for second chances should clients stumble along the way, depending on the circumstances.
Recent statistics show the program’s positive impact in Yolo County, according to the DA’s Office. Of the 65 people assessed during 2018-19 year, 27 were enrolled in one of the collaborative courts. Twenty-four of those who did not enroll didn’t qualify because they didn’t suffer from a serious mental illness, or they chose not to enroll.
For those who did enroll, when comparing the 12 months prior to starting Mental Health Court to the 12 months after Mental Health Court, there was an 89 percent decrease in arrests, a 90 percent decrease in jail bed days, a 52 percent decrease in local hospital bed days, and a 100 percent decrease in state hospital bed days.
— Reach Lauren Keene at@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene