Jail Diversion Program

The Jail Diversion Program helps individuals whose legal involvement may be a result of untreated mental illness or co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders. This is a short-term program designed to help stabilize and link clients to more traditional treatment methods in order to reduce their incidence and length of incarceration.

Services include face-to-face assessments, transportation, transitional housing, psychiatric evaluations, treatment plans, prescription medication therapy, intensive case management, court liaison and finding additional community resources. The program provides access to community-based health and substance-abuse treatment services. Clients receive treatment services, case management, housing and medications.

The Pinellas County Mentally Ill Jail Diversion Program is a collaboration with the public defender, state attorney, Pinellas County sheriff, the judiciary and local service providers. It is also supported by the Pasco County sheriff's.

How It Works

Within 48 hours of referral, the program coordinator screens potential clients for eligibility. If accepted, the client is given a case manager, who performs an intake assessment and explains the program to the client. Then, a treatment team member and the client develop a treatment plan, with goals and objectives to reduce the stressors that contribute to the onset or progression of substance abuse, mental health relapse and criminal involvement. Most clients admitted to the program are scheduled for a psychiatric evaluation. Medications are prescribed and managed according to best practice standards.

Upon admission to the program, the client signs a consent for treatment, authorizing the participants of the program to communicate treatment information to each other. The coordinator will track court dates and be aware of necessary appearances, relay this information to the treatment team and provide current treatment information to the courts. Based on assessment, clients are referred to the most appropriate, least restrictive program within the partner agencies within the community.

Upon release from the jail, most clients will receive a 30-day supply of medications. Based on the screening conducted by the program coordinator, referrals will be made to an appropriate housing source. Support funds are available to purchase items for daily living for the clients, to include hygiene and housekeeping products; such items are provided with the assistance of the case manager. At no time are the clients given cash.

The program provides a variety of transitional housing opportunities. The program can provide rental assistance and deposits for a short-term situation. It can also provide apartments for qualified clients and a supported living specialist. The living specialist will work with the participants while they reside in the center’s housing as well as facilitate and support their moves into permanent housing. An extensive orientation process is completed by the client. There are mandatory weekly meeting and training sessions. The client is required to comply with prescribed medications and is directed to available community resources and assisted with the necessary application process. The final step is to allow re-entry into the community on an independent-living basis after the transition period.

Since transportation is another major issue faced by our indigent clients, bus tokens are provided to alleviate this problem. Need is again assessed by the case manager.

The length of stay in the program is determined by the client’s ability to progress toward their stated goals. Clients may transition to traditional mental health services where they can continue to work toward successful completion of their treatment plan. The criteria for discharge from the program are related to the diagnoses and clearly defined in the treatment plan.

The Benefits

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office has continuously voiced support for placement of inmates in appropriate mental health facilities, as opposed to the Pinellas County Jail. The cost per day to house an inmate in the Pinellas County Jail is $90. Mentally ill clients, however, generate a higher cost per day than the other inmates in terms of medication, treatment and disruption. The placement of these mentally ill patients in mental health facilities has resulted in considerable cost savings to the jail. Long-range benefits include a decrease in recidivism rates and re-offenses.

Perhaps the most important benefit of the program is decriminalizing mental illness andproviding treatment in an appropriate medical setting. If the concept of mental health evaluation at the time of booking is shown to be effective, state funding and statutory change requiring this type of intervention could follow. The benefits to the safety of the community and the resulting impact to the criminal justice system would be substantial.

Funding and Support

The Jail Diversion Program was initially funded through a federal Bureau of Justice Assistance grant of $993,500, which was awarded in 2003. The program became operational in February of 2004. From February to December 2004, there were 432 clients served, providing a cost savings of $5,712,174 to the Pinellas County Jail and providing needed treatment services to these clients.

In 2005, an additional BJA grant in the amount of $739,982 enabled the continuation of this program. In 2006, BJA funding totaling $493,614 was awarded. In Pinellas and Pasco counties, the respective Boards of County Commissioners has approved funding since 2005 to continue the program.

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The Jail Diversion Program resulted in an incredible arrest reduction rate as illustrated by the following statistics:

RECAP PINELLAS JAIL DIVERSION PROGRAM APRIL 2004-DECEMBER 2007

 

Year	No. Clients	Arrests Before JD	Arrests After JD	% Decrease in Arrests	% Non-compliant	Deceased Clients
2004*	199	1,009	203	79	25	6
2005	601	4,296	832	80	13	8
2006	496	3,585	320	91	12	5
2007	602	4,891	179	96	7	3
Totals	1,898	13,781	1,534	89%	57%	22

*2004 COVERS APRIL - DECEMBER ONLY