Stepping Up: A National Initiative to Reduce the Number of People with Mental Illnesses in Jails

The Problem

The number of people with mental illness in U.S. jails has reached crisis levels. In counties across the nation, jails now have more people with mental illnesses than in their psychiatric hospitals. Learn More

The People

The situation is hurting real people. But communities, judges, police officers, mental health professionals and others have already started stepping up to combat the problem. More Stories

Paton Blough

Greenville man uses his troubled past to train police
Bill Carruthers

Georgia man on the road to recovery after four decades
Lt. Lionel Garcia

Lionel exits after making LAPD unit model for nation
Kathy Griffin-Grinan

Peer counselors speak from experience at Santa Maria

What You Can Do

Stepping Up asks communities to come together to develop an action plan that can be used to achieve measurable impact in local criminal justice systems of all sizes across the country.

Introducing: Set, Measure, Achieve

Set, Measure, Achieve is a call to action for Stepping Up counties to establish and reach goals that demonstrate reduced prevalence of mental illness in jails. Learn More »