Mental Health’s Role in Public Defense

Since 2007, TRLA has offered public defender (PD) services. In fact, TRLA is the largest provider of PD counsel in Texas, serving fourteen southern counties out of four offices. One unique aspect of PD at TRLA is our Mental Health Peer Specialist program, which operates out of our Beeville office. Since 2017, the program has served Bee, Live Oak, McMullen, and Refugio counties.

Access to mental healthcare is a severe problem for Texas residents. Texas’s most extensive mental health facilities are in jails, with Dallas County and Harris County jails taking the lead. Indigent populations are historically affected by mental health struggles at a much higher rate: 40% of those booked in local jails and 35% of prison inmates, as of 2013, had received public mental healthcare in the past. TRLA’s two Mental Health Peer Specialists work with clients to find alternatives to incarceration, such as mental health treatment or addiction recovery services.

With TRLA since 2017, Red Gilbert is triple certified as a Mental Health, Reentry, and Recovery Support Peer Specialist. These credentials, alongside his lived experience of incarceration and reentry, make Red uniquely positioned to support all our PD clients. As Red puts it, clients who often have no visitors or outside support system realize, “I’ve been where you are.” This first-hand connection allows them to build trust.

Bob Strause, a peer specialist with TRLA since 2021, works primarily with clients dealing with addiction. He explains, “I’m experientially credentialed, so my life on both sides of addiction is my college. . . Both sides of my recovery and addiction are used to help others.”

In the face of significantly rising prison populations, mental health support like that provided by TRLA has gained traction in the wake of a broader sweep of reforms instituted by the 80th Texas Legislature in 2007. These reforms have strengthened alternatives to incarceration and contributed to reducing the recidivism rate in Texas to one of the lowest in the country.

The difference made in clients’ lives is incalculable. Bob’s experience both as a peer and a peer specialist underscores the impact of this program.

Connecting indigent populations with resources to address their mental health and recovery needs is vital to reducing imprisonment and re-offense. Furthermore, as Bob describes, working in our PD division offers “the opportunity to put a ray of hope into people’s lives . . .”.