Stephanie Rhoades

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The Honorable Stephanie Rhoades served as a District Court Judge in Anchorage, Alaska, from 1992 to 2017.[1] Judge Stephanie Rhoades founded the Anchorage Coordinated Resources Project (ACRP), better known as the Anchorage Mental Health Court (AMHC).[1] AMHC was the first mental health court established in Alaska and the fourth mental health court established in the United States.[2][1] Legal scholars suggest in the Alaska Law Review that mental health courts are to be considered therapeutic jurisprudence and define crime that deserves therapeutic justice as “a manifestation of illness of the offender’s body or character.”[3] They follow that crime that falls under this definition “should be addressed through treatment by professionals.”[3]

State of Alaska Official Election Pamphlet: Region II: Municipality of Anchorage, Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Division of Elections. p. 180

Rhoades saw how a jail sentence can be immensely detrimental to the quality of life of incarcerated individuals with

criminal justice system on people with mental illness, she incorporated (1) education or employment counseling; (2) benefit application assistance for the unemployable; (3) safe and supportive housing; (4) routine check ins for substance abuse; and (5) scheduled productive socially integrative activities.[4]

Early life and education

District Court Judge Stephanie Rhoades was born in Newton, Massachusetts, where she attended Needham High School.[1] She graduated from the University of Massachusetts in Boston, Massachusetts, with a bachelor’s degree in Legal Services in 1983.[1] In 1986, she then earned her J.D. from the Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts.[1] At the start of her career, Rhoades served on the Alaska Supreme Court from 1986 to 1987.[1] Following, she served as a law clerk to the District Attorney’s Office in Anchorage from 1988 to 1992.[1] She would then serve as a District Court Judge from 1992 to 2017.[1] Rhoades is the spouse to Russel Webb.[1] She relocated from Massachusetts to Alaska in 1986; she has lived in Anchorage, Alaska, for thirty-four years.[1]

Anchorage Coordinated Resources Project

The Honorable Stephanie Rhoades founded the Anchorage Coordinated Resources Project (ACRP), otherwise known as the Anchorage Mental Health Court (AMHC) in 1998.

Municipality of Anchorage, (4) [w]illing to voluntarily participate in an individualized case plan in lieu of traditional bail or sentencing conditions, (5) [e]ligible to receive community behavioral service.”[6] During the first year of AMHC’s presence in Anchorage, roughly 129 people with mental illness were penalized with probation rather than a lengthy jail sentence.[6]

Funding

Rhoades first set forth a proposal for a Bureau of Justice assistance grant, but the proposal was denied.[4] Soon after, the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority distributed funds to AMHC.[4] These initial funds enabled the program to hire its first case coordinator and project manager, officiating AMHC.[4] The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority serves Alaskans who experience mental illness through financing programs that benefit mentally disabled individuals.[8] The Trust supplies over $20 million in grants for relevant causes per year.[8] Representatives of the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority had close ties with Rhoades' CCRP subcommittee.[4] Today, funding for AMHC comes from legislative financial aid, state and federal grants, and donations, both community-based and private.[1] One cost break for AMHC includes selecting interns from the University of Alaska Anchorage.[3]

Retirement

Judge Stephanie Rhoades retired from the bench on Friday, September 1, 2017 after 25 years of serving as a state judge.[9] Superior Court Judge Jennifer Henderson took over the mental health court operations in 2017.[9]

Other activities

Project Homeless Connect

Rhoades is an active volunteer for Anchorage’s Project Homeless Connect (PHC).[10] PHC is a local event for homeless people in Anchorage. The event provides housing opportunities, amongst other services for the homeless community.[11] Its goal is to create a collaborative of service providers, government agencies, and volunteers.[11] Additionally, PHC collects data on the homelessness epidemic that is used to supply local, state, and federal databases.[11] She is the Lead Food Coordinator for this Anchorage event.[10]

Anchorage Assembly's Committee on Homelessness

Stephanie Rhoades and her husband Russ Webb are active members of the Anchorage Assembly's Committee on Homelessness.[12] Russ formulated a 12-point plan for resolving Anchorage's homeless camps issue.[12] Rhoades and Webb work on locating camps where they get campers involved.[12] The pair focus on moving campers from the street to shelters.[12] They also advocate for the prohibitions against naming camps public nuisances.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Division of Elections. (2014). State of Alaska Official Election Pamphlet: Region II: Municipality of Anchorage, Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Division of Elections. p. 180. https://www.elections.alaska.gov/doc/oep/2014/AK-Region-II-book.pdf
  2. ^ a b Cooper, C. L. (2014). Women innovate to deliver alternatives for mentally ill offenders. Perspectives, 23(2), 12-14. https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/prspctiv23&i=28
  3. ^ a b c d e Carns, T. W., Hotchkin, M. G., & Andrews, E. M. (2002). Therapeutic justice in Alaska's courts. Alaska Law Review, 19(1), 1-56. https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/allr19&i=11
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Trawver, K. R., & Rhoades, S. L. (2013). Homesteading a pioneer mental health court: A judicial perspective from the last frontier. The American Behavioral Scientist (Beverly Hills), 57(2), 174-188. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764212465417
  5. ^ a b c d e f The Crime and Justice Research Institute. (2000). Emerging Judicial Strategies for the Mentally Ill in the Criminal Caseload: Mental Health Courts In Fort Lauderdale, Seattle, San Bernardino, and Anchorage. U.S. Department of Justice. p. 35-47. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/bja/182504.pdf
  6. ^ a b c d e Alaska Court System. (2021). Alaska Therapeutic Courts, Anchorage Coordinated Resources Project, Anchorage Mental Health Court. The Alaska Court System. https://public.courts.alaska.gov/web/forms/docs/pub-100.pdf
  7. ^ a b Center for Court Innovation. (2006, September). Stephanie Rhoades, Judge, Anchorage Mental Health Court. Center for Court Innovation. https://www.courtinnovation.org/publications/stephanie-rhoades-judge-anchorage-mental-health-court
  8. ^ a b Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority. (2021). About. Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority. https://alaskamentalhealthtrust.org/about/
  9. ^ a b "Anchorage judge resigns from mental health court she created, with succession plan in place". Anchorage Daily News. 2017-09-04. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
  10. ^ a b The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, & UAA-Center for Human Development. (2017). Reducing Recidivism Through Successful Reentry. University of Alaska Anchorage. https://www.uaa.alaska.edu/academics/college-of-health/departments/center-for-human-development/Reducing-Recidivism-Conference/_documents/AdultFY17RRRconf_program.pdf
  11. ^ a b c Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness. (2021). Project Homeless Connect. https://aceh.org/get-involved/project-homeless-connect/
  12. ^ a b c d e Hughes, Zachariah; Media, Alaska Public (2018-09-14). "Meet the married retirees pushing Anchorage to change homeless policy". Alaska Public Media. Retrieved 2021-04-03.
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