FOX 5 Special: Criminal Minds

Fulton County has a new court program and it might be a casualty of the county's budget crisis. The mental health court is dedicated to helping people with serious mental illness get out of jail and stay out, by giving them the treatment and supervision they need.

The judge who started the program said the court program is changing lives while both saving money and making the streets safer. But the program needs money to do the job.

"For the last two decades, I've been like a yo-yo syndrome, going in and out of jail and institutions," said Dover Glass. "I thank God I have not died but several times I've been left for dead."

Glass just celebrated his 42nd birthday at Hope House in downtown Atlanta, in the shadow of City Hall. Hope House is a residential program where Glass gets supervision and medicine for his schizophrenia.

"To be honest, I don't know all of them by heart, but I know some I'm on Tryzofone, Benadryle. I'm in the process of trying to learn them and learn the milligrams," said Glass.

Glass spent years in jail for stealing from cars to support his crack cocaine addiction and he came very close to spending his birthday behind bars again this year, thanks to a relapse of his drug habit.

Glass was one of the first participants in Fulton County's mental health court. The mental health court is a pilot program that started three years ago in response to the revolving door at the county jail.

Glass was kicked out once and is getting a second chance.

Brenda Ernest is the program's only full-time employee.

The Fulton County jail is Metro Atlanta's largest mental health care provider. About 625 people incarcerated there are taking psychotropic medications for serious mental illness.

The vast majority inmates suffering from mental illness have no idea how to care for themselves when they get out jail.

One judge says many, if not most, of the mentally ill don't belong in jail in the first place.

"The most expensive way to treat the mentally ill is to incarcerate them," said Judge Doris Downs.

Judge Downs is the chief judge of the Fulton County Superior Court.

It was Judge Downs' idea to create the mental health court in order to treat the mentally ill as people in crisis, not as criminals.

"What we need to do is convince [people] that it's cheaper, it reduces crime and it's much more humane to treat rather than incarcerate the mentally ill," said Judge Downs.

Judge Downs sees Glass and the other offenders in the program on a regular basis in her court. Judge Downs encourages offenders when they need it and admonishes them when that's required.

Ernest is the judge's eyes and ears outside the courtroom. Ernest also coordinates housing, transportation and doctors appointments, which is a colossal challenge that demands a lot of hand-holding.

"If that means I have to sit at Grady [Hospital] or wherever that appointment is for 12 hours, then we do it, but it pays off in the long run," said Ernest.

Given those demands, Fulton's mental health court can only handle about 100 offenders, which is just the tip of the iceberg in the jail.

"The biggest hurdle is there's no money," said Judge Downs. "Let's figure out which prisons to close and how to give community treatment to people who are not violent."

To advocates of a tough on crime approach who want repeat offenders behind bars, Judge Downs said, "We have a 70 percent success rate. If they're sent to prison there's an 80 to 90 percent failure rate."

"A person who is addicted to something is a slave to it," said Glass.

At Hope House, Glass is getting real freedom for the first time in a long time. "This program has given me a sense of hope," said Glass. "My end result hope is to get myself together and come back to be a help to others that have problems like myself."

Just a few months ago, seven people graduated from Fulton's mental health program. The program's graduates had been arrested 123 times between them before entering the program. In the last two years, not a single arrest.