Judges & Psychiatrists Leadership Initiative honors behavioral health leaders

Kentucky Chief Justice Debra Hembree Lambert will be awarded the 2025 Judge Stephen S. Goss Lifetime Achievement Award for her vision, compassion, and commitment to improving court responses to people with behavioral health needs. 

Presented by the Judges and Psychiatrists Leadership Initiative (JPLI) - a partnership between NCSC, the Council of State Governments Justice Center, and the American Psychiatric Association Foundation - the award recognizes the critical impact of judges and psychiatrists in improving outcomes for people with behavioral health needs in the criminal justice system. Named for the late Judge Goss, the award celebrates the work of at least one judge and one psychiatrist each year and also recognizes lifetime achievement. Chief Justice Lambert and three additional honorees will receive the award during the annual JPLI Summit on Dec. 2. 

Under Chief Justice Lambert's leadership, Kentucky has become a national leader in judicially-driven behavioral health reform. She has long promoted treatment-focused alternatives to incarceration or foster care and established the Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health in 2022. The initiative was the first of its kind and helped expand responses to mental health needs and improve competency processes. Chief Justice Lambert has also helped expand court-based behavioral health liaison positions and mental health courts and has secured legislation to address competency evaluation backlogs.

Also receiving the Judge Stephen S. Goss Lifetime Achievement Award is Debra Pinals, medical director of Michigan's behavioral health and forensic programs for the Department of Health and Human Services and director of the program in psychiatry, law & ethics at the University of Michigan Medical School. Pinals leads statewide efforts to strengthen diversion, reentry and treatment partnerships and co-developed MISSION-Criminal Justice, a wraparound model supporting people in the justice system with co-occurring disorders. 

JPLI will also honor Judge T. Luke Barteaux and Katherine Warburton with the 2025 Judge Stephen S. Goss Award.

• Judge T. Luke Barteaux. A district judge for the Cherokee Nation District Court, Judge Barteaux has led transformative initiatives that emphasize treatment, healing, and cultural understanding over punitive measures. He established the Cherokee Nation's first Veterans Treatment Court and implemented forensic mental health services that integrate behavioral health care into the justice process.
• Katherine Warburton. Warburton, medical director for the California Department of State Hospitals, has led statewide reforms to address California's incompetent to stand trial crisis including designing and implementing a mental health diversion program that redirected thousands from jails to community-based treatment.