OLATHE, KS (KCTV) -
Mental health advocates are looking at a successful jail diversion program to get the mentally ill out of Kansas jails.
Because of their mental state, many advocates believe jail or prison may not be the safest place for someone with mental illness.
According to a study the John County Sheriff's Office conducted in 2010, 17 percent of inmates in the Johnson County Jail are mentally ill, and half of the inmates who have been in the jail 20 times or more suffer from mental illness.
Texas has long had a reputation for being tough on crime. But Bexar County, in San Antonio, has quietly emerged as model for jail diversion, which other states like Kansas are now working to replicate.
"We need to do more to keep mentally ill people out of the criminal justice system," said Rick Cagan, executive director for the Kansas' National Alliance on Mental Health.
Cagan held two meetings this week with law enforcement personnel, judges and district attorneys to share the successes of the Bexar County program, which lowered the prison population by moving mentally ill offenders out of jail cells and saved millions in criminal costs.
"I think people left with a sense of there are some things we can do and we need to forge those closer working relationships across sectors. We worked a little bit on a game plan for each community," he said.
Some components of the program are already being used in Kansas. The Olathe Police Department has a mental health worker on staff. The Johnson County Jail is weighing its options, and Wyandotte County Jail recently added a crisis intervention program.
"We need to make some investments in crisis facilities so that there are alternatives to jail, and we need to make sure that there appropriate mental health resources in place," Cagan said.
The Bexar County program is more proactive because it works to identify mentally ill people before they get arrested.
A suspect could get probation or be moved to a treading facility, even though some do slip through the cracks and end up in the general population, as do many of the mentally ill convicts in Kansas.
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