Identification and Treatment for Mentally III Jail Inmates

About the Program

Category: Criminal Justice and Public Safety (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

Maricopa County Correctional Health Services functions in the fourth largest jail system in the country. It had a need to develop a system to identify, treat, and track those patients with mental health problems. Given the size of the population (between 9,500 and 10,000 daily inmates) this was a problem that required developing a new approach. Collaborative efforts with the community mental health system and Correctional Health Services resulted in such a system that has increased the ability to provide quality and timely mental health services to a vulnerable population in the jail setting.