When California Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled CARE Court in 2022, he sold it as a long-overdue breakthrough for families torn apart by severe mental illness.
Standing before cameras, Newsom promised compassion with teeth. The new system, he claimed, would finally force treatment on people too sick to seek help on their own. It would end the endless cycle of jail, homelessness, and emergency rooms.
State estimates ranged from 12,000 to as many as 50,000 people who could benefit.
Nearly three years later, after burning through $236 million in taxpayer funding, the results are stunning.
California courts have ordered exactly 22 people into mandatory treatment.
A Mother Believed the Promise. The System Turned Her Away.
Ronda Deplazes believed CARE Court would finally save her son.
He has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and has spent two decades drifting between jail cells and homeless encampments. She has found him barefoot in freezing weather. She has watched him scream through neighborhoods in the middle of the night. He has been arrested nearly 200 times.
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