Marion ‘Stepping Up’ to reduce number of people with mental illness in jail
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, annually, an estimated 2 million people suffering from serious mental illnesses are booked into local jails across the United States.
It’s a growing issue that, according to the Ohio Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS), results in “missed opportunities to link them to treatment, tragic outcomes, inefficient use of funding, and failure to improve public safety.”
In an effort to provide a support system for counties and municipalities struggling to address the issue, the national Stepping Up Initiative was formed in 2015 to help reduce the number of people with mental illness entering local jails. It’s a partnership between The Council of State Governments Justice Center, the National Association of Counties, and the American Psychiatric Association Foundation.