Texas County Progress
The Official Publication of the County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas
Editor’s Note: In many counties, the county jail has become a de facto mental institution, housing mentally ill inmates awaiting due process without their medications and/or life-sustaining therapies. The situation is lose-lose-lose; the inmates and their families, fellow inmates and jail staff, and the taxpayers are all affected. Money has been appropriated, and … [Read more...] about A Ray of Hope
Overincarceration of People with Mental Illness: Pretrial Diversion Across the Country and the Next Steps for Texas to Improve its Efforts and Increase Utilization Editor’s Note: The following is Part 3 in a series, “Overincarceration of People with Mental Illness,” a report released in June 2015. The full report is available at … [Read more...] about Overincarceration of People with Mental Illness Part 3
Slowly but surely, the state of Texas is trying to turn a complicated, costly, and often heartbreaking saga into a coordinated, comprehensive service delivery system – and counties are right in the thick of it. Anywhere from 16 percent to 20 percent of offenders in the Texas criminal justice system have a mental health diagnosis, said Leon Evans, director of the Center for … [Read more...] about Jail Diversion Programs Target Offenders With Mental Illness
