Archive

An extensive data analysis coupled with over 50 in-person interviews with stakeholders in Salt Lake County’s justice and behavioral health systems led to the identification of key recommendations improve outcomes for people involved with the county’s criminal justice system, particular those with behavioral health disorders. Read More

Across the country, people in many jurisdictions who frequently encounter criminal justice, behavioral health, and social service systems are experiencing behavioral health crises and require different levels and intensities of services. This three-part series features three Stepping Up Innovator Counties that are also MacArthur Foundation Safety and Justice Challenge sites. Representatives from these sites provide information on how to effectively serve and increase engagement with people who frequently cycle in and out of jails, emergency departments, homeless shelters, and other community-based settings. This session provides an overview of engagement challenges in service and treatment and strategies for how to work through them at both at the individual and systems levels. Read More

Across the country, many jurisdictions find that some of the people who frequently encounter criminal justice, behavioral health, and social service systems are experiencing behavioral health crises and require different levels and intensity of services. Featuring three Stepping Up Innovator Counties that are also MacArthur Foundation Safety and Justice Challenge sites, this series provides information on how to effectively serve and increase engagement with people who frequently cycle in and out of jails, emergency departments, homeless shelters, and other community-based settings. This first session provides an overview of how the sites identified these populations and explores their continuum of care for behavioral health crisis services. Read More

The Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services (KDADS) and The Council of State Governments Justice Center (CSG Justice Center) announce the opening of the Kansas Stepping Up Technical Assistance Center (TA Center) to help counties reduce the prevalence of people with serious mental illness in jails. The TA Center—only the second of its kind in the nation—will offer technical assistance tailored specifically to Kansas counties to support policies and programs improving outcomes for people with mental illnesses and co-occurring substance use disorders in jails. Reinforced by support from the national Stepping Up initiative, this effort will be directly informed by local needs and guided by a leadership team of state and local representatives. This webinar introduced the TA Center and provided an overview of resources available to counties. The webinar also discussed how counties can sign up to be part of the TA Center and how they can get started on or advance the work of Stepping Up in their counties with support from the TA Center. Read More

Leaders of local criminal justice initiatives often need to facilitate sensitive conversations when evidence points to disparities in the system. Disparate outcomes can take many different forms, such as longer jail stays for people with serious mental illnesses or disproportionate numbers of people of color being booked into jail. Elevating these topics as priorities and guiding system stakeholders toward meaningful action may feel uncomfortable, challenging, and stressful for the people driving the conversation. During this webinar, a panel of county justice system directors will share their approach for championing change when systemic disparities demand a new path forward. Read More

In Part 2 of the webinar series with the Data-Driven Justice Initiative, this webinar featured counties that have implemented policies and practices that identify frequent utilizers of these systems and use this information to connect people with appropriate treatment and services. Read More

The first in a two-part webinar series with Data-Driven Justice, this webinar focused on the collection, management and sharing of data and addressed primary challenges counties often face in these efforts. Subject matter experts discussed how they implemented processes to collect, share, integrate and analyze data on people involved in multiple county systems. Read More

Jails across the country are struggling with too many people with mental illnesses in their jails. In this workshop, hear from county leaders about their policies, practices and programs to keep people with mental illnesses out of jails, provide appropriate care to those who are in jails and better connect them to community-based treatment and services after release. Read More