Lawyers and the Chief Justice have welcomed plans for a special court to improve the way criminals with mental health problems are dealt with.However, Chief Justice Ian Kawaley said more needs to be done to ensure there are appropriate secure facilities and support services for dangerous and mentally ill offenders.In the Throne Speech yesterday, Government said: “Bermuda can no longer ignore the significant challenge presented by those who commit crimes, but who are mentally ill. The current pattern of mentally ill Bermudians repeatedly entering and exiting the criminal justice system is damaging to them, poses unacceptable risks to society, and cannot be allowed to continue.”The news comes a month after Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner lamented the courts’ limited powers to deal with defendants who are mentally ill.“We’ve been asking for a secure area for mentally ill patients for years and we haven’t got that,” he noted, as he dealt with an aggressive mental patient who threatened his mother at a residential care home.In 2011, the then Attorney General, Michael Scott, and the Bermuda Hospitals Board signalled their support for a special mental health court to improve the way criminals with mental problems are dealt with. However, Mr Scott said budget cuts meant the court would have to remain on the back burner.Days before that, Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves had pressed for a mental health court to be implemented as he sentenced a schizophrenic man who stabbed his neighbour.In the Throne Speech yesterday, Government said: “Such persons present unique judicial challenges with profound human rights dimensions. It is incumbent upon the Government to put in place a legislative framework that ensures they are dealt with appropriately by the judicial system.”It said Government will work closely with judiciaries in other countries that already have mental health courts with a view to changing Bermuda’s Magistrates’ Court to allow for one. Additionally, Parliament will be invited to amend the Mental Health Act to facilitate the assessment and treatment of mentally ill offenders and amend the Criminal Code “to allow for the appropriate disposition of mentally ill offenders”. Reacting to the news yesterday, defence lawyer Larry Scott — a former United Bermuda Party Senator — said: “There are clearly human rights implications; there are also serious mental health issues in our society, which is showing severe signs of dysfunction that make it very difficult for courts to apply the currently inadequate legislative measures to assist the defendants. It seems that the Government has first admitted the problem; now we must fix the patient.”Mr Scott said it is important that the Magistrates’ and Supreme Courts have a framework within which to order help. However, Mr Scott added: “The real test comes in the bias in the implementation, and that is where the human rights issue arises. What we don’t want is heavy-handed reactionary provisions in law that allow judges to put people away. We need to have professional persons, other than judges, deciding who is or is not mentally challenged.“Such a person being treated should also, like children in family courts, be in a setting that is not like a criminal court setting, so as to avoid the taint of criminality because they are in that environment of a court. Providing there is some sensitivity to new rules, we will be off to a good start.”Fellow defence lawyer Larry Mussenden, who served as Attorney General under the PLP Government, said: “I think the establishment of a court for this purpose has a lot of merit in it. Sometimes it requires specialist knowledge, and the defendants who fall into this category definitely deserve support from the court and from counsel. I think this will go a long way to assist.” Mr Justice Kawaley said: “The Judiciary has long recognised the need to better serve mentally ill court users and welcomes Government’s commitment to focus on this important issue. The Senior Magistrate will continue to participate in the work of the Mental Health Act 1968 Review Committee and to assess the feasibility of a special mental health court. It is important to identify with clarity precisely what legal problems need to be addressed before identifying specific solutions.“However, there are two clear issues of concern to the courts which, to my knowledge, remain unresolved — adequately staffed secure facilities for mentally ill but dangerous offenders and adequately staffed psychological support services within Westgate Correctional Facility to implement treatment programmes ordered by the courts.”Those issues hit the headlines following the death of Lorenzo Robinson in July 2008. The 28-year-old paranoid schizophrenic committed suicide in Westgate after battling for six years to secure the specialist overseas treatment that experts said he needed. Bermuda does not have a “forensic psychiatric unit” to incarcerate the criminally insane.Since then, an agreement has been made with the Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust in England that prisoners with severe mental health problems can be sent there for treatment. However, Government later said that a decision to transport such patients to England would only be made in the “most exceptional” of cases.