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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

The Stepping Up initiative encourages counties to track data along Four Key Measures, including connecting people who have serious mental illness (SMI) to treatment and other services after discharge from jail. Communities across the country are looking for information on how to best facilitate connection to care for individuals with SMI. With the current expansion of telehealth, there is a need to discuss best approaches, other ways to connect to care, and to share tips and strategies from counties. Join the Stepping Up partners for a webinar focused on one this key measure: Increase Connection to Care. Read More

The Stepping Up initiative encourages counties to reduce the number of people with mental illness in county jail systems. Counties in California are increasingly focusing their efforts on addressing mental illness in the criminal justice system, but one of the barriers to making progress in this work is accurately identifying who has mental illness in jail systems and collecting data on this population. This webinar will provide an overview of the recommended three-step approach for identifying mental illness in jails that is required to be a Stepping Up Innovator. The webinar will feature representatives from California’s two recognized Innovator Sites, Calaveras County and San Luis Obispo County, who will discuss their screening, assessment, and data collection processes. There will also be time for questions and answers on the webinar. Read More

Correction and detention facilities are currently the de facto mental health providers. Stepping Up initiatives empower the public sector to work together in implementing programs to address the growing number of individuals with mental health illnesses that end up in jails and prisons. With more than 500 committed counties, Stepping Up provides the framework from which efforts can be developed to address issues any community is facing. This session’s speakers provided an overview of the Stepping Up initiative and how two counties implemented it. Risë Haneberg is the Deputy Division Director of the Behavioral Health Division for the Council of State Governments Justice Center. Kelly Rowe is a Sheriff in Lubbock County, Texas while Calvin Hayden is Johnson County, Kansas’ Sheriff. 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

This webinar introduced Veterans Justice Outreach (VJO) specialists to the Stepping Up initiative and gave an overview for how VJO specialists can play a role in connecting veterans who have serious mental illness to treatment and support services after release from jail Read More

This webinar gave an overview of the recommended approach for identifying and collecting data on people with mental illness in jails. The three steps include: 1) using a shared definition of serious mental illness across justice and behavioral health systems; 2) screening people booked into jail using a validated screening tool for serious mental illness and referring people who screen positive for assessment; and 3) recording screening and assessment information electronically and regularly reporting out on this population Read More

This webinar gave an overview of how counties can start or re-engage their Stepping Up planning and implementation process, following the Stepping Up Six Questions Framework Read More