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Counties should have a clear and accurate process for identifying people with mental illnesses coming into the jail. This requires conducting a screening for symptoms of mental illness on every person booked into jail, as well as for other behavioral health needs such as substance use disorders. Jails should also screen individuals for pretrial and criminogenic risks to help determine release and supervision strategies. People who screen positive for symptoms of mental illness should be referred to a follow-up clinical assessment by a licensed mental health professional. Ideally, these clinical assessment results will be recorded in a database or spreadsheet that can be queried. Having accurate information on individuals’ risk and needs will assist with referrals to mental health treatment while they are in the jail and connections to services when they are released. Having the ability to store and query this information using system-wide definitions of mental illness and serious mental illness will assist with county planning efforts. Read More

Reducing the number of adults with mental illnesses in jails requires a cross-systems, collaborative approach involving a system-wide planning team. Planning teams may already exist in the form of a criminal justice coordinating council or mental health task force, or your county may decide to create a new planning team. Planning teams should include, at a minimum, county elected officials such as commissioners or supervisors, criminal justice and behavioral health leaders, representatives from the courts, people with mental illnesses or their family members and other relevant community stakeholders. Designating a person to coordinate the planning team’s meetings and activities and to manage details will push the initiative plans forward. In addition, an elected official should be designated as the planning team chairperson, as strong leadership from elected officials is essential to rally county agencies in these efforts. Read More

The goal of this publication is to provide rural county leaders with ideas and strategies for addressing these challenges by providing examples of counties that have successfully done so or are making progress. There is no one strategy that will work for all counties, or all rural counties. But county leaders are encouraged to learn from each other’s experiences and adapt their peers’ policies, practices and programs to fit the needs of their county and residents. Read More

The Stepping Up Four Key Measures Case Studies serve as a quick reference to the strategies highlighted in this series and share suggested sub-measures associated with each of these measures to help counties better collect and analyze their data. Read More

In March 2016, the Calaveras County Board of Supervi­sors passed a resolution to join the national Stepping Up initiative and commit to safely reducing the number of adults with mental illnesses in the Calaveras County Jail by connecting them to community-based treatment whenever possible. In May 2018, Calav­eras County was selected for the inaugural cohort of Stepping Up Innovator Counties due to its efforts to accurately identify and collect data on individuals with mental illnesses coming into its jail. Read More

Through a culture of collaboration, Johnson County, Kan., has developed numerous systems and processes to help collect, share and use data on individuals who come into contact with their county’s justice and human services systems, including those with behavioral health needs. The county uses these systems and processes to inform policy and funding priorities to better identify individuals with mental health treatment needs and connect them to services. Read More

Middlesex County, Mass., is a large and diverse county encompassing 54 different cities and towns of various sizes. Throughout these jurisdictions, leaders were seeing similar trends in opioid-related crimes and fatalities and increasing law enforcement contact with people with co-occurring mental illnesses and substance use disorders. The Middlesex Sheriff’s Office was seeing the impact on its jail population. In 2016, the county adopted a regional approach to combat these issues by establishing partnerships between the sheriff and chiefs of police from police departments within the county. As of June 2017, 21 of the 54 police departments within the county had joined the Data-Driven Justice initiative and assigned a staff person to work collaboratively to address these issues. Read More

In 2010, the Coconino County Board of Supervisors requested a recidivism study on people being released from the county jail. This request kicked off the county’s efforts to better collect, share, analyze and use data among county stakeholders and move to a culture of collaboration between partners to generate the best outcomes for individuals involved with the criminal justice system. Read More

In 2015, recognizing a need to relieve jail overcrowding and identify alternatives to jail for people with mental illnesses, Douglas County, Kan., leaders sought out policy and practice changes that could be put into place that would lead to better outcomes for their residents. The County Board of Commissioners supported the development of a Criminal Justice Coordinating Council to enhance collaboration among the various agencies and systems (including other municipal law enforcement agencies) needed to work on this issue. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office was awarded a U.S. Department of Justice’s Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP) grant and worked with the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center and the University of Kansas to develop the Assist-Identify-Divert (AID) Program. Read More