Pilot Jail Diversion Program Opens for Mentally Ill Arrestees in Austin
A pilot program to divert mentally ill suspects from Texas’ Travis County Jail (TCJ) in Austin opened in March 2024. Inspired by the success of similar efforts in Miami and Nashville, county Judge Andy Brown corralled a coalition of community officials to hash out program details in February 2024.
County Sheriff Sally Hernandez (D) said her department had already tried putting more mental health professionals in TCJ, also setting up mental health crisis hotlines and providing additional training for deputies in de-escalation techniques. But the same people kept cycling in and out of custody, she said, staying just long enough to get stabilized before being released back onto the streets to start decompensating once again.
“The frustration on the law enforcement end is that we have nowhere to take them,” Hernandez admitted.
County mental health care provider Integral Care has developed the 90-day program at a 25-bed inpatient facility it operates in the Genevieve Tarlton Hearon Respite Recovery building in downtown Austin. The program’s goal is to provide a safe place for mentally ill arrestees for low-level crimes until caregivers can develop a long-term treatment plan.
The three-year pilot program will cost $23 million and will provide data that the county lacks on an at-risk segment of its mentally ill population. Most importantly, it will also help keep that population from cycling through TCJ, which saw bookings jump in 2023 to 28,828 from 22,068 just two years before. Judge Brown estimated that 44% of those booked into the lockup have significant mental health needs.
“This has put a strain on staffing the jail,” he declared.
Hernandez stressed the need for more services after someone completes the program, since mental health issues are seldom resolved in 90 days. “If we don’t keep these things a priority, then we will just be building another new facility to shove the mentally ill in, and the cycle continues,” she said.
Source: Texas Tribune
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