Background

The GAINS Center estimates approximately 800,000 persons with serious mental illness are admitted annually to U.S. jails. Moreover, among these admissions, the preponderance (72 percent) also meet criteria for co-occurring substance use disorders. As community-based mental health services have failed to keep pace with, law enforcement departments and jails have become de facto service providers to persons with co-occurring disorders.

Over the past two decades, jail diversion programs have emerged as a viable and humane solution to the criminalization and inappropriate criminal detention of individuals with mental disorders. Diverting appropriate individuals from jail to community-based mental health treatment has been heralded for its potential benefits to the criminal justice system, the community and the diverted individual.