Diversion
Highlighted Resources
Divert to What? Community Services that Enhance Diversion (2020)
Produced By: National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
Description: Many communities are committed to diverting people with mental illness away from the criminal justice system. However, in order to do so, communities need effective mental health services, such as outpatient, inpatient and crisis care. This publication is meant to help communities identify the gaps and opportunities in the existing system that will enhance their efforts to divert people from justice system involvement.
Keywords: Diversion; crisis services; mental health services
Other Resources
Directory
II. Implementing Diversion Programs
I. Overview of Diversion
Behavioral Health & Law Enforcement: Early Diversion Initiatives
Produced By: SAMHSA's GAINS Center for Behavioral Health and Justice Transformation
Supported By: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Description: This one-page resource provides an overview of essential elements of an early diversion initiative to improve law enforcement responses to people experiencing behavioral health crises. It also provides early diversion initiative examples.
Keywords: Diversion; law enforcement
Mental Health Emergencies, Law Enforcement and Deflection Pathways (2022)
Produced By: National Conference of State Legislatures
Supported By: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Centers for Disease Control
Description: This resource discusses law enforcement contact with individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. It discusses five alternative pathways to incarceration, including self-referral, active outreach, post-overdose outreach, prevention, and intervention measures and programs that fall within these pathways.
Keywords: Diversion; deflection; co-responder; Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)
Building Healthier Communities through Pre-Arrest Diversion
Produced By: International Association of Chiefs of Police
Description: This factsheet outlines collaborative pre-arrest diversion strategies that offer connections to treatment and recovery for individuals in need, while enhancing community safety and engagement. This type of collaboration requires community partners, as well as interorganizational considerations.
Keywords: Alternatives to arrest; diversion
First Responder Deflection Resource Library
Produced By: Bureau of Justice Assistance
Description: The resource library contains a range of materials that provide examples of foundational documents that have been submitted by existing first responder deflection (FRD) programs from across the United States.
Keywords: Diversion; deflection; case management; research; evaluation
Produced By: Stepping Up Initiative: National Association of Counties, American Psychiatric Association, Council of State Governments Justice Center
Supported By: Bureau of Justice Assistance
Description: This resource provides an overview on the purpose, development, and goals of the Stepping Up Initiative. It explains that it aims to provide tools to develop cross-systems, data-driven strategies to produce measurable reductions of individuals with mental health conditions in jail. It also provides links to connect readers with additional resources.
Keywords: Stepping Up Initiative
Produced By: Urban Institute
Supported By: Bureau of Justice Assistance
Description: This brief describes how people with behavioral health conditions interact with the criminal justice system and how states have sought to better identify and respond to people with behavioral health conditions through the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI). It describes the Sequential Intercept Model and opportunities for diversion, including examples of community practices in the field.
Keywords: diversion; Sequential Intercept Model (SIM)
Law Enforcement Diversion of Persons with a Mental Illness from the Criminal Justice System (2016)
Produced By: Los Angeles Police Department
Description: This resource visually depicts the options available to law enforcement officers for diverting someone with mental illness through the criminal justice system. It demonstrates the complicated system that individuals with mental illness, their families, and communities have to navigate. It can be used by officers for an at-a-glance list of options.
Keywords: Diversion
Building the Off-Ramp: Quality Connections to Care (2021) - Webinar
Produced By: The Council of State Governments Justice Center; University of Cincinnati
Supported By: Bureau of Justice Assistance
Description: At each point in the criminal justice system, from initial contact with law enforcement to community supervision, there are opportunities to divert people with mental health and substance use conditions away from the criminal justice system and into community-based treatment and support. This session features communities that have successfully built a broad range of community-based services to answer the “divert to where?” question. These communities describe how they determined which community-based services to build; how those services function as effective diversion opportunities; and the successful outcomes they have achieved, such as reducing the number of people with behavioral health conditions in their local jails.
Keywords: Diversion; community-based services
Produced By: Council of State Governments Justice Center
Supported By: Bureau of Justice Assistance
Description: Among the more than 540 counties that have joined the Stepping Up initiative, Innovator counties lead the nation in successfully collecting and applying data to inform decision-making. This brief covers how Innovators are bringing about meaningful change in the movement to reduce the number of people with behavioral health needs in local jails.
Keywords: Stepping Up; behavioral health needs; jails; mental illness; substance use; data
Produced By: Urban Institute
Supported By: Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Description: This report discusses the social and economic costs of individuals with mental health conditions incarcerated in jails and prisons, how individuals with mental health conditions who committed an offense are processed through the criminal justice system, and presents promising interventions and policies for these individuals.
Keywords: Diversion
Produced By: Community Services Division of the County Services Department
Description: Crisis care centers offer alternatives for law enforcement to divert individuals with mental illnesses from the criminal justice system. This publication discusses the benefits of crisis care services and features county examples of effective crisis care services.
Keywords: Crisis care centers; diversion
Diversion to What?: Evidence-Based Mental Health Services that Prevent Needless Incarceration (2019)
Produced By: Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
Description: This fact sheet describes essential and effective community services that should be part of every community’s mental health system. It also describes the evidence that these services decrease the incarceration and institutionalization of individuals with mental health disabilities. When communities provide these services in sufficient amounts and ensure that there is ongoing coordination between the criminal and mental health systems, they will dramatically reduce the
damaging and costly cycling of people with mental health disabilities in and out of jails, emergency rooms, hospitals, and shelters.
Keywords: Mobile crisis services; mental health; diversion; supportive housing; peer support services; supported employment; Assertive Community Treatment (ACT)
Produced By: Mental Health America
Description: This position statement discusses diversion from the criminal justice system for all persons accused of crimes for whom mental health or substance use treatment is a reasonable alternative to confinement or other criminal sanctions. It describes different diversion strategies, including pre-arrest and post-arrest strategies.
Keywords: Diversion
Statewide Policies Relating to Pre-Arrest Diversion and Crisis Response (2019)
Produced By: R Street
Description: The resource reviews and analyzes the primary statewide barriers to and accelerants of pre-arrest diversion and crisis response strategies. It begins by providing an overview of pre-arrest diversion strategies. It then delves into five categories of law or regulation that most directly affect these strategies and often serve as the basis of fully-fledged crisis responses in their own right: emergency mental health hold laws, protective custody statutes, citation authority, substance abuse Good Samaritan laws and ambulance transport destination rules.
Keywords: Crisis response; statewide policies; statutes; diversion
Approaches to Early Jail Diversion: Collaborations and Innovations (2018)
Produced By: Abt Associates
Supported By: Assistant Secretary for Planning nd Evaluation (ASPE)
Description: This project was designed to assist the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) to better understand pre-booking jail diversion programs (Intercepts 0 and 1) and approaches for people with serious mental illness (SMI), substance use disorders (SUD), and co-occurring disorders (COD). Specifically, this project focuses on jail diversion for adults with SMI, SUD, and/or COD at Intercepts 0 and 1 on the Sequential Intercept Model (SIM).
Keywords: Jail; diversion; Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) mapping
County Roles and Opportunities in Reducing Mental Illness in Jails
Produced By: National Association of Counties
Supported By: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Description: This document will outline some of the challenges counties face when trying to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses entering jails and highlight key strategies that communities have used to address this issue.
Keywords: diversion
First Do No Harm: Advancing Public Health in Policing Practices (2015)
Produced By: Vera Institute of Justice
Description: This report focuses on how police can integrate harm reduction and health promotion into their work, and the ways in which police and community health providers can partner to strengthen and expand diversion programs, keeping people who are more in need of health and social services than punishment out of the justice system. This report describes interagency strategies to reduce unnecessary arrests and incarceration and promote the health of people.
Keywords: Crisis Intervention Team (CIT); diversion
Building Support for Diversion (2016)
Produced By: Community Catalyst
Supported By: Open Society Foundations
Description: Community Catalyst, a White House Data-Driven Justice Initiative Commitment Maker, outlines five components for building community support. Using local examples to illustrate the steps that build community support, Community Catalyst lays a foundation for bringing organizations and individuals together to agree on goals and collaboratively develop a strategy that diverts individuals from the justice system and into appropriate health services.
Keywords: diversion; planning
Bridging the Gap: Crisis Response as Criminal Justice Diversion (2021)
Produced By: National Association of Counties
Supported By: Bureau of Justice Assistance
Description: National Association of Counties hosted a workshop at its Annual Conference in July 2021 on Bridging the Gap: Crisis Response as Criminal Justice Diversion. This blog features key innovations discussed in the workshop. It provides examples of programs in the field.
Keywords: diversion; crisis response
Stepping Up Initiative Resources Toolkit
Produced By: Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center, the National Association of Counties (NACo), and the American Psychiatric Foundation
Supported By: Bureau of Justice Assistance
Description: The Stepping Up Resources Toolkit provides key resources intended to assist counties with developing and implementing a systems-level, data-driven plan that can lead to measurable reductions in the number of people with mental illnesses in local jails.
Keywords: diversion; collaboration
Produced By: Council of State Governments Justice Center
Supported By: Bureau of Justice Assistance
Description: The Stepping Up initiative works to address the overincarceration of people with mental illnesses and substance use disorders. This overview covers the purpose of the initiative, highlights to date, and what Stepping Up can offer to counties across the country.
Keywords: mental illness; stepping up; collaboration; behavioral health
Produced By: Vera Institute of Justice
Description: This resource includes a compilation of the research on the benefits and cost savings that can be realized by providing treatment as an alternative to arrest and incarceration. This brief is intended to help decision-makers and practitioners as they consider more cost-effective and humane policy options.
Keywords: Mental health; alternatives to arrest; alternatives to incarceration; diversion
First-Episode Psychosis: Considerations for the Criminal Justice System (2017)
Produced By: National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors
Supported By: Center for Mental Health Services/Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Description: This resource is designed to (1) educate criminal justice professionals about first-episode psychosis and the importance of intervention, (2) inform criminal justice professionals about the availability of Coordinated Specialty Care (CSC) models in the community, and (3) highlight key opportunities for detection, diversion, and intervention in the criminal justice system.
Keywords: sequential intercept model (SIM); diversion; psychosis; Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)
Produced By: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Description: This guide provides information and practices that behavioral health providers can implement in their daily practice with patients or clients who are involved in the criminal justice system. It includes eight core principles and frequently asked questions about the criminal justice system, including discussing diversion, collaboration, and disparate outcomes.
Keywords: diversion; criminal justice
State and County Collaboration: Mental Health and the Criminal Justice System (2008)
Produced By: Community Services Division of the County Services Department
Supported By: Bureau of Justice Assistance
Description: This resource discusses how counties and states are working together to increase collaboration between the mental health and criminal justice systems. The efficient collaboration of these systems enables county residents to access necessary services.
Keywords: collaboration; diversion
Practical Advice on Jail Diversion (2007)
Produced By: Policy Research Associates (PRA)
Supported By: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS)
Description: Originally published in 2007, this resource offers actionable information on what jail diversion is, why it makes sense as an approach to reducing the over-incarceration of people with behavioral health needs, and how to adopt or adapt a program for the local landscape. Professionals in the criminal justice and behavioral health fields and interested community members can use this resource to learn to design, plan, implement, and evaluate a successful jail diversion program.
Keywords: jail; behavioral health; diversion
Produced By: National GAINS Center for People with Co-Occurring Disorders in the Justice System
Description: This guide seeks to assist providers who serve individuals with mental health conditions involved in the criminal justice system by exploring three key areas: (1) Who are providers serving? (2) What should providers know about the criminal justice system? and (3) How can mental health service providers work together with criminal justice professionals to best meet the needs of persons with mental health conditions in the justice system?
Keywords: diversion; collaboration
Produced By: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Description: This resource examines opportunities and challenges associated with municipal court diversion for people living with mental health conditions and substance use disorders. It outlines elements for effective diversion, recovery-based engagement strategies, and proportional response. It also provides examples of courts achieving effective diversion.
Keywords: diversion; Sequential Intercept Model (SIM); court
No Entry: A National Survey of Criminal Justice Diversion Programs and Initiatives (2013)
Produced By: Center for Health and Justice at Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities (TASC)
Supported By: Open Society Foundations
Description: This report provides historical and environmental context, a theoretical framework for understanding types of diversion at several phases of the justice system (law enforcement, pretrial/prosecution, court), summary descriptions of various diversion programs, and observations and themes that emerged from a national survey of diversion programs and initiatives. It spotlights program design, participating stakeholders, affected communities, implementation challenges and successes, and where available, cost savings and overall effectiveness. It also seeks to express the scale of the existence of these programs across the country.
Keywords: Crisis Intervention Team (CIT); Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD); diversion
II. Implementing Diversion Programs
Implementing A Mental Health Diversion Program: A Guide for Policy Makers and Practitioners (2020)
Produced By: Justice Systems Partners
Description: This guide was developed to serve as a road map for change leaders and decision makers looking to create diversion opportunities for people with low-level misdemeanors and mental illness. It outlines a four-phase process for implementing and monitoring an evidence-based program, and provides useful tools for organizing and planning an initiative. The guide draws from implementation science and lessons learned from Harris County, Texas, where many of these concepts were tested on the ground.
Keywords: Diversion; mental health conditions
Data Driven Justice: A Playbook for Developing a System of Diversion for Frequent Utilizers (2021)
Produced By: National Association of Counties
Supported By: Arnold Ventures
Description: This resource is a playbook to help communities design a multi-system strategy to divert individuals who frequently utilize multiple systems (jails, hospital emergency rooms, shelters, and other public systems), when appropriate, away from the criminal justice system and emergency health systems and into community-based services. It discusses five key elements of a data-driven diversion strategy and includes guidance on implementation, case examples, and insights from Data-Driven Justice communities.
Keywords: Frequent utilizer; diversion
Emerging Best Practices in Law Enforcement Deflection and Community Supervision Programs (2020)
Produced By: National Association of Drug Court Professionals
Supported By: Office of National Drug Control Policy
Description: This resource is Volume III of the Journal for Advancing Justice and features articles on law enforcement deflection programs. Articles discuss deflection, mobile crisis teams, crisis intervention teams (CIT), and lessons learned from deflection and diversion programs.
Keywords: Deflection; diversion; mobile crisis teams; Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)
Re-Imagining Crisis Response: The Crisis Diversion Facility Model
Produced By: Health Management Associates (HMA)
Supported By: Arnold Ventures
Description: This brief discusses the crisis diversion facility model including goals, services provided, and outcomes.
Keywords: Crisis diversion facility; diversion
Produced By: Health Management Associates (HMA)
Supported By: Arnold Ventures
Description: This guide discusses the crisis diversion facility model, including services provided and detailed case studies of these facilities: The Crisis Response Center in Tucson (AZ), The Care Campus in Rapid City (SD), the Behavioral Health Urgent Care Center in Knoxville (TN), and The Restoration Center in San Antonio (TX). It also provides a detailed framework of the crisis diversion facility model.
Keywords: Crisis diversion facility; diversion
Produced By: Health Management Associates (HMA)
Supported By: Arnold Ventures
Description: This guide describes the crisis diversion facility model and is intended to help inform stakeholders who are interested in developing a crisis diversion facility with information and lessons learned from successful implementation. It discusses key elements of success, key partners and roles, funding, and examples of these facilities in practice.
Keywords: Diversion; crisis diversion facility
Produced By: Council of State Governments Justice Center
Supported By: Bureau of Justice Assistance
Description: This resource describes key components to developing a systems-wide diversion strategy and focuses on the fundamental agencies within the criminal justice system that can lead the implementation of diversion interventions, with the goal of diverting people with mental illness from the justice system and into community-based treatment and support services.
Keywords: collaboration; police; mental health; diversion
FAQ: A Look into Jail-Based Behavioral Health Diversion Interventions (2020)
Produced By: Council of State Governments Justice Center
Supported By: Bureau of Justice Assistance
Description: This fact sheet is a complement to Behavioral Health Diversion Interventions: Moving from Individual Programs to a Systems-Wide Strategy, which talks about developing a community-wide diversion plan across the criminal justice continuum, but notes that communities will need to determine priorities based on their specific needs. In this publication, we answer some common questions from people who may want to invest in jail-based diversion, such as why set up this type of intervention, who can implement it, what are some common best practices, and where and what can people be diverted to?
Keywords: jails; diversion; behavioral health
Produced By: National Association of Counties
Description: This resource is a step-by-step guide to help communities develop the conceptual framework and collaborations necessary for a successful jail diversion program. It will discuss the rationale and rewards of jail diversion, the Bexar County model, enlisting community support, funding the program, and economics of diversion.
Keywords: Diversion
Produced By: Council of State Governments, NAMI (the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill), the National Mental Health Association (NMHA), the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD), the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, and the Criminal Justice / Mental Health Consensus Project
Description: The seeds for this handbook were sown with the development of the Criminal Justice/Mental Health Consensus Project Report. Published in 2002, the Consensus Project Report offers a 400-page blueprint for how the mental health, criminal justice, substance abuse treatment, and related systems can collaboratively improve their responses to people with mental illness. If the Consensus Project Report outlines a vision for where we should be, then this handbook offers a roadmap for how advocates can help us get there. Based on information from the Consensus Project Report, and interviews with dozens of successful advocates, the Handbook examines five crucial steps that should underlie any advocacy effort to reverse the overrepresentation of people with mental illness in the criminal justice system.
Keywords: Crisis Intervention Team (CIT); co-responder; law enforcement; diversion
A Guide to Implementing Police-Based Diversion Programs for People with Mental Illness (2004)
Produced By: GAINS Center for Behavioral Health and Justice Transformation
Supported By: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Description: This resource provides an overview of the problems, challenges, and efforts made regarding individuals living with mental health conditions in the criminal justice system. Resource provides information on the historical efforts agenceis have made to develop programs and practices designed to serve people with mental illness.
Keywords: Diversion; Crisis Intervention Team (CIT); mobile crisis team
III. Case Studies
Building Data-Driven Justice in Dane County, Wis. (2021)
Produced By: National Association of Counties
Supported By: Arnold Ventures
Description: In 2016, Dane County joined Data Driven Justice (DDJ), committing to data sharing and integration across justice, health, and community services systems in an effort to divert individuals with substance use disorders and mental illnesses away from the justice system and decrease or eliminate their need for emergency services. Long standing efforts on criminal justice reform in Dane County, in addition to growing community support, led the County Board to approve an expansive reform package in October of 2020. This package included a triage and restoration center, a community justice center, and protocol changes for a crisis first responder pilot program. This case study shares Dane County’s recent successes providing crisis response services to residents in need and the steps that led to these successes.
Keywords: Diversion; mobile crisis team; triage and restoration center
Building Data-Driven Justice in Franklin County, Pa. (2019)
Produced By: National Association of Counties
Description: Through its involvement in the Data-Driven Justice initiative, Franklin County, Pa. has committed to a using a data-driven approach to expand the care continuum for justice-involved individuals with complex behavioral health needs who are high utilizers of services. At the Data-Driven Justice and Behavioral Health Design Institute, the county prioritized increasing the means and degree of collaboration between behavioral health stakeholders, which included focusing on how data integration improves identification, assessment and warm hand-offs of the justice-involved population to community-based treatment and supports.
Keywords: Diversion; Sequential Intercept Model (SIM); Crisis Intervention Team (CIT)
Stepping Up Initiative: Special Topics Case Studies (2019)
Produced By: National Association of Counties; Council of State Governments (CSG); American Psychiatric Association Foundation
Description: This website provides case study examples: (1) Tulsa, OK: engaging people with lived experience in stepping up efforts, (2) Alamance County, NC: communicating about efforts to reduce the number of people with mental illness in jails; and (3) Johnson County, Iowa: addressing housing needs of people with mental illnesses involved in the justice system.
Keywords: Planning; collaboration; diversion
Produced By: Safety and Justice Challenge
Supported By: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Description: This blog post describes the work in Middlesex County (MA) to improve collaboration and communication across fields such as public safety and behavioral health through the Middlesex County Restoration Center Commission. It discusses lessons learned and their plans to open a pilot Restoration Center to provide behavioral health services to individuals experiencing a crisis related to mental health and/or substance use.
Keywords: Diversion; restoration center
Produced By: National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors
Description: The Harris Center for Mental Health and IDD, located in one of the most diverse communities in the United States, Houston, Texas, has a long history of effective and innovative collaboration with first responders. Some of their most recent innovations include the CORE program which is a strategy of responding to mental health crisis calls using a tablet and a HIPAA-approved technology platform to connect a law enforcement first responder with a mental health clinician in the community at the time of the 911 dispatch; a new Respite, Rehab, and Re-Entry facility which provides pre-charge jail diversion in partnership with many collaborators including The Houston Police Department and Harris County Sheriff’s Office; and a 911 Crisis Call Diversion program in partnership with the Houston Fire Department and Houston Police Department. During this webinar they discuss how The Harris Center was able to coordinate with first responder partners to bring these programs to fruition and the outcomes they are seeing in their community due to these collaborations.
Keywords: Collaboration; crisis services; first responder; Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD); mental health; Clinician and Officer Remote Evaluation Program (CORE); Sequential Intercept Model (SIM) mapping
Mental Health and Criminal Justice Case Study: Harris County, Texas (2016)
Produced By: National Association of Counties
Description: This case study discusses the work in Harris County (TX) to divert individuals with mental health conditions from the jail and increase access to housing, health, and social services. The Mental Health Jail Diversion Program provides a continuum of services to people living with serious mental illness to reduce their involvement in the criminal justice system, including case management and services and permanent supportive housing. The case study also discusses program outcomes.
Keywords: Diversion; case management
Pima County, Ariz. Meeting Needs Along the Behavioral Health and Justice Continuum (2018)
Produced By: National Association of Counties
Supported By: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA); Laura and John Arnold Foundation
Description: This case study outlines the work implemented in Pima County (AZ) to meet the needs of individuals along the behavioral health and justice continuum. It discusses the planning work implemented in the county, including pretrial screenings for everyone booked into the jail, the Law Enforcement Mental Health Support Team, and the community crisis response system.
Keywords: Co-responder; Crisis Intervention Team (CIT); pretrial screening; community responder; diversion
Building Data-Driven Justice in Berks County, Pa. (2018)
Produced By: National Association of Counties
Description: When Berks County attended the Data-Driven Justice and Behavioral Health Design Institute it identified two priorities. The first priority was to gather the data necessary to understand the delivery and consumption of behavioral health, emergency and criminal justice services. The second was to identify the appropriate measures for determining the effectiveness or success of each service. In order to address these priorities, the county is creating a map of its data systems, including data elements that are stored within existing databases, developing a data governance strategy and identifying a technology solution that would allow data owners to share deidentified datasets with other stakeholders in order to identify high utilizers—also called frequent utilizers—with cross-system interactions. The priorities identified and action plan developed by the Berks County team at the Design Institute support the CJAB’s goals to use data and technology to better understand, design and implement effective and appropriate services for people with mental illnesses.
Keywords: Diversion; Frequent utilizer
Building Data-Driven Justice: Franklin County, Pennsylvania (2017)
Produced By: National Association of Counties
Description: This resource includes information on Franklin County's efforts in using data-driven strategies to divert individuals who committed low-level offenses with mental health conditions out of the criminal justice system. It discusses how the county uses and shares data to optimize its work, who the stakeholders are in their work, what populations are their focus, how the county used data to identify these populations, what programs the county has in place, and how they are using data to measure success and ensure long-term sustainability.
Keywords: Sequential Intercept Model (SIM); Crisis Intervention Team (CIT); mobile crisis; diversion
Produced By: National Association of Counties
Supported By: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
Description: Fairfax County, Va., launched its Diversion First initiative in 2015 to offer alternatives to incarceration for people with mental illnesses and/or developmental disabilities who come into contact with the criminal justice system for low-level offenses. The initiative began with an initial 40-person stakeholder group that has expanded to more than 180 members who meet quarterly as a whole and participate in various work groups on issues such as data and evaluation, communications, Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training and more. Through every step of the initiative, the leadership and stakeholders’ groups communicate to the community about the work being done and the potential impact of these efforts to gain and maintain public support and trust.
Keywords: Crisis Intervention Team (CIT); Mental Health First Aid Training; diversion; crisis response center
Produced By: National Institute of Corrections
Description: This resource provides a description of the Jail Alternatives Program in Johnson County, including how the county uses the sequential intercept model to assist individuals in effectively managing their mental health conditions and/or substance use disorders before they become involved in or penetrate further into the criminal justice system.
Keywords: Diversion; Sequential Intercept Model (SIM)
Produced By: Urban Institute
Supported By: Contra Costa County Behavioral Health Division
Description: This report documents the operations of the Contra Costa County Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) (CoCo LEAD Plus) program and presents preliminary findings from the process and outcome evaluations. The program is designed to divert and serve people with behavioral health conditions who have been repeatedly arrested by the Anitoch (CA) Police Department for certain low-level nonviolent charges. CoCo LEAD Plus is designed to provide participants peer-driven outreach and engagement, behavioral health services, work-readiness and vocational supports, and opportunities for permanent and transitional housing.
Keywords: Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD); diversion
Program Description - Eleventh Judicial Circuit Criminal Mental Health Project
Produced By: Eleventh Judicial Circuit Criminal Mental Health Project
Description: This resource describes the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Criminal Mental Health Project in Miami-Dade County (FL), which has two components: (1) pre-booking diversion consisting of Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training for law enforcement, and (2) post-booking diversion for individuals who are booked into jail and are awaiting adjudication. It also discusses the outcomes and fiscal impact of different components of the project.
Keywords: Crisis Intervention Team (CIT); diversion
Mental Health and Criminal Justice Case Study: Miami-Dade County, Fla.
Produced By: National Association of Counties
Description: This case study describes the planning process for Miami-Dade County (FL) to review the ways in which the community responds to people living with mental health conditions before and after they come into contact with the criminal justice system. It describes the Criminal Mental Health Project which operates four different diversion programs: (1) pre-booking jail diversion consisting of Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training for law enforcement, (2) post-booking jail diversion: misdemeanor program, (3) post-booking jail diversion: felony program, and (4) forensic alternative center: incompetency. It also discusses social security benefits and program outcomes.
Keywords: Crisis Intervention Team (CIT); diversion
Produced By: Health Management Associates (HMA)
Supported By: Baton Rouge Area Foundation
Description: This report provides a series of recommendations, a business plan, and implementation for the BRidge Center that are designed to address the challenges East Baton Rouge is facing, with the ultimate goal of stopping the cycle of criminalization for people with behavioral health issues. It also provides a literature review on evidence-based practices in diversion programs.
Keywords: Crisis continuum; diversion
Multnomah County Feasibility Assessment: Mental Health Jail Diversion Project (2015)
Produced By: Lore Joplin Consulting
Description: This report is intended to help Multnomah County better understand the population of people with mental illness in its jails and what opportunities there might be to divert more of them to community-based services. It explores topics such as how many people with mental illness there are in jail locally, what they are like, the reasons they are there, the strengths and weaknesses of the current jail diversion system, and the challenges of estimating the costs associated with detention and diversion. The report also presents recommendations that incorporate stakeholder input.
Keywords: Diversion; Sequential Intercept Model (SIM); data
SLCO Behavioral Health Services: Alternatives to Incarceration Initiatives
Produced By: Salt Lake County
Description: This resource describes different initiatives that support alternatives to incarceration in Salt Lake County.
Keywords: Diversion; alternatives to incarceration
Produced By: The Center for Pharmacoeconimc Studies
Supported By: Center for Health Care
Description: This policy report describes the criminal justice costs that are avoided because of the Bexar County Jail Diversion program. The diversion program relies on a multi-pronged approach, including pre- and post-booking interventions. Costs were estimated using state data as well as case-level costs from similar programs. Studies of cost-effectiveness and other outcomes can help build and sustain support for a strategy that involves multiple stakeholders.
Keywords: Diversion; evaluation