Jail Diversion Program
Jail Diversion focuses on preventing further involvement with the legal system by focusing effort on five distinct ‘intercept’ points
- Pre-Arrest – Law Enforcement and Emergency Services
- Pre-Booking – Initial Detention/Initial Court Hearings
- Jail In-reach -Jails and Courts
- Re-entry – from corrections to the community
- Community Corrections/Community Support – maintain support in the community
The goals of the jail diversion program are:
- Reduce mental illness’ effect in the community.
- Reduce arrests and legal system entanglement.
- Connect people with mental illness to other resources for which they need (food, clothing, work, shelter, etc).
- Provide cost effective supports to the entire community
- Break down barriers for those with mental illness.
- Referrals to jail diversion are prioritized by:
- Individuals with high risk of criminal behavior, incarceration or arrest
- Individuals who have co-existing substance abuse disorder of more than six months
- Individuals who have shown little or no ability to participate in office based services
- Individuals on parole or probation