“We don’t clap when you complete a domestic violence accountability program,” a New York City judge told researchers investigating the expansion of “problem-solving courts” in 2003. These new courts sought to address the “root causes of crime” through therapeutic and other alternatives to punishment, including rewards.
Drug courts had started celebrating recovery, while domestic-violence courts hewed to an older, less-progressive model of expecting people to stop hurting their partners. A 2013 study of 24 New York domestic-violence courts found that:
92% rated holding offenders accountable as extremely important.
54% did not count rehabilitation as a goal at all.
Mental-health courts offer defendants diagnosed with a serious mental illness1 another option. If you follow a treatment plan, attend therapy and keep checking in with the judge, you may avoid prison and have your charges reduced or dismissed.
A federally funded Urban Institute evaluation of Bronx Mental Health Court, published in 2012, documented frequent second chances, with staff describing jail as a last resort. When defendants broke the rules, changing their treatment or how often they met with case managers was a more common response.
In 2025 testimony to the New York State Senate, Selwyn Bernardez described hitting a panhandler with a samurai sword on a subway platform while high on drugs. After six months at Rikers, he entered a court program offering treatment instead of incarceration. He reported completing about a year of therapy, recovery meetings and court check-ins, rebuilding his work and family life, and having his charges dismissed.
Domestic-violence programs offer help too. The city’s Abusive Partner Intervention Program combines counseling and practical support with courses lasting 16 or 26 weeks. But it calls the work “accountability-based”: participants examine harmful behavior and their responsibilities to partners, families and the community.
The domestic-violence court can acknowledge that a defendant has problems and still tell him to stop making them someone else’s problems. It can arrange counseling while insisting that his partner should not have to wait for his recovery to be safe. There is nothing regressive about helping one person get better while protecting another from getting hurt.
What counts as a serious mental illness? The Manhattan District Attorney's report identifies schizophrenia and bipolar disorder as qualifying examples.