Lenawee County starting program aimed at reducing mentally ill people in justice system
Lenawee County is implementing a new program called Stepping Up, which applies a systems-based approach with the goal of reducing the number of individuals with mental illness and related disorders in the criminal legal system.
Approximately 2 million times each year, people who have serious mental illnesses are admitted to jails across the nation. Almost three-quarters of these adults also have substance use disorders. Once incarcerated, individuals with mental illnesses tend to stay longer in jail and, upon release, are at a higher risk of returning to incarceration than people without these illnesses, the national Stepping Up initiative reports.