Tuesday March 19th Pinnacle Room Baldwin Hall 2:00 pm "Next Steps for Persons in the Criminal Justice System with Mental Health Issues" Prior to his appointment in 2018 to the Court of Appeals of Georgia, Judge Steve Goss served as a state trial judge in Albany, Georgia for 23 years, first as a juvenile court judge and for the last 19 years as a state circuit Superior Court judge. Judge Goss is a past president of the Council of Superior Court Judges of Georgia. In 2002, Judge Goss founded the Dougherty Superior Court Mental Health/Substance Abuse treatment court program. It was the first full scale mental health court in Georgia and one of the early felony programs nationally. The program has served as a national Learning Site for mental health courts as designated by the Council of State Gov’ts and the US Bureau of Justice Assistance. He is the immediate past chairman of the Council of Accountability Court Judges of Georgia. Judge Goss is a faculty member of the National Drug Court Institute and is a senior adviser to the US Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration GAINS Center for persons in the criminal justice system with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. He has served as an active faculty member of the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada since 2003. He has published articles and book chapters on the issues of mental health courts, cooccurring disorders, mental competency and trial court professionalism. He regularly presents and consults in other states in support of the development of programs dealing with persons in the criminal justice system with co-occurring disorders.
