Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Court

In 2002, the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, suburban court partners, and community stakeholders created the Mental Health Court Initiative. Together, they developed the Mental Health Court Docket model.

The focus of this collaboration was to identify existing programs and services that serve the severely mentally ill and developmentally disabled population; to identify the gaps in service, and expand resources; to enhance communication and training which ultimately provides efficient, effective, and consistent criminal response.

In 2010, the Mental Health Court was renamed to the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities (MHDD) Court to better represent the population it serves.

The MHDD Court has five judges, along with two Probation Supervisors, two pre-trial officers, and 13 highly trained post-conviction officers

The collaborative effort between the courts and community agencies has helped to provide improved care for the MHDD offenders while promoting increased safety for the community through therapeutic approaches and evidence-based practices.

Judge Shannon M. Gallagher

Courtroom: 22-D

Judge Deena R. Calabrese

Courtroom: 22-B

Judge Emily Hagan

Courtroom: 19-A

Judge Timothy McCormick

Courtroom: 20-C

Judge Michael Shaughnessy

Courtroom: 16-C

MHDD Mission

The mission of the Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Court is to promote early identification of defendants with severe mental health/developmental disabilities in order to promote coordination and cooperation among law enforcement, jails, community treatment providers, attorneys and the courts for defendants during the legal process and achieve outcomes that both protect society and support the mental health care and disability needs of the defendant.