INDIANAPOLIS — The Office of Public Health and Safety (OPHS) recently announced the award of a $500,000 grant from the Bureau of Justice Assistance. The funds will support planning, implementation, and evaluation of criminal justice system improvements aimed at reducing the prevalence of mentally ill individuals in jail. The collaborative planning effort led by OPHS will bolster ongoing work to prepare for the expected fall 2020 opening of the Assessment and Intervention Center (AIC).
The first phase of the grant period will see OPHS, in partnership with the Criminal Justice Planning Council (CJPC), analyze gaps and inefficiencies of current diversion efforts in the Marion County criminal justice system to develop a comprehensive action plan, paying special attention to opportunities for pre-arrest diversion. As part of this analysis, existing systems for identifying and serving individuals with behavioral health disorders will be assessed and mapped.
Following the assessment period, system improvements will be implemented that aim to enhance coordination and consistency across the criminal justice system and increase diversion of those suffering from mental illness or substance abuse.
These collaborative improvements aim to prepare the criminal justice system for the 2020 opening of the AIC, a facility of the future Community Justice Campus that will serve as a diversion option for low-level offenders with a behavioral health issue. An analysis of jail and mental health data found that nearly 30% of those sent to jail in 2015 would be referred for mental health services in the next three years, and individuals who had been referred to the mental health team were 1.44 times more likely to be re-arrested within 6 months of release. The study also found that mental health had more effect on re-arrest than race, gender, age, or severity of the offense, and those with mental health referrals had an average length of stay 3.6 times longer than those who had not been referred.