Douglas County joins new initiative to reduce jail stays, improve connections to care for those with mental illness

Douglas County has joined a new multiyear initiative that aims to measurably reduce jail stays for people with serious mental illness, or SMI, and to track their connections to care. The “nationwide call to action,” called Set, Measure, Achieve, pushes for a 10% annual reduction in jail bookings of people with SMI and a 5% annual reduction in average length of stay, according to a news release from the county. It also calls for a 5% annual reduction in recidivism. The county’s goals for 2021 are to reduce its SMI population in the jail by 1% from 9%, average lengths of jail stays from 27 days to 25 days and recidivism from 66% to 62%.
Source: LJWorld.com.