For years, behavioral health professionals, community advocates, and criminal justice leaders have faced challengesin decreasing the overrepresentationof people with behavioral health needs in the justice system.
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Despite efforts to implement diversion opportunities and increase health care and treatment options, people with behavioral health needs still often cycle through the criminal justice system at great health, fiscal, and human costs. Local stakeholders and the broader public have not always understood the benefits of offering people pre-arrest and post-arrest diversion opportunities, especially amid concerns about increases in violent crimes throughout the country.
Even when connections to community-based care are fostered, decades of racial, ethnic, and income-level disparities have contributed to inequities in who is given opportunities for behavioral health diversion.
Prosecutors can sign onto Propelling Change: A Prosecutor Call to Action to help address these concerns locally and nationwide.
For more information on the prosecutor’s role in fostering connections to care and practical actions they can take to support diversion efforts locally, read Changing the Narrative: The Prosecutor’s Role in Fostering Connections to Community-Based Care.