Specialized Dockets

Specialized dockets are particular sessions of court or dockets that offer a therapeutically oriented judicial approach to providing court supervision and appropriate treatment to individuals.

Specialized dockets recognize that offenders with mental illness, substance abuse, and trauma related injuries pose a special challenge within the criminal justice system. Each docket is created with the intent of protecting the community by reducing the recidivism of these offenders by improving and expediting the delivery of services through intense supervision and treatment.

Specialized dockets enable qualified individuals to be treated in a court-monitored, community- based program in lieu of incarceration. Participants in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas specialized dockets must meet specific eligibility requirements and have no history of serious or repetitive violence.

Specialized dockets must be certified by the Ohio Supreme Court. The Mental Health Court and the Veterans Treatment Court were created in accordance with the requirements set forth in Rules 36.20 through 36.29 of the Rules of Superintendence for the Courts of Ohio while the Hamilton County Drug Court was the first in Ohio and is established pursuant to statute.

Drug Court, Hon. Nicole L. Sanders

Felony Veterans Treatment Court, Hon. Terry Nestor 

Hamilton County Re-Entry Docket, Hon. Wende C. Cross

Mental Health Court, Hon. Alison Hatheway, Hon. Jody M. Luebbers,  Hon. Lisa C. Allen & Hon. Tom Heekin