Behavioral health diversion is built on a guiding hypothesis: Diverting non-violent individuals with serious mental illness away from the criminal justice system and into community-based treatment and support services will transform lives, reduce recidivism, generate cost savings, and ease the burden on jails, courts, and state hospitals. This hypothesis has been proven in well-resourced urban centers like Miami. The Wyoming Judicial Branch is now testing whether it holds true in a rural, under-resourced jurisdiction like Wyoming.
To test this hypothesis, the Wyoming Judicial Branch launched the state’s first diversion pilot in Campbell County on January 1, 2024. The program operates as follows: eligible individuals (those who commit non-violent misdemeanors, have a diagnosis of serious mental illness, are assessed as moderate to very high criminogenic risk, and do not pose a public safety threat) are offered the option of diversion. Participants who choose diversion and successfully complete an individualized treatment plan have their charges dismissed. Those who decline or fail to complete the program return to the traditional criminal justice process.
With funding from the State Justice Institute, the Wyoming Judicial Branch partnered with the National Center for State Courts to provide training and technical assistance for the Campbell County pilot and up to three additional pilots across the state.
Early results are promising. The pilot program’s first graduate spent 623 days in jail before entering diversion and zero days in jail after entering the program. While it is too early for definitive conclusions, these results suggest behavioral health diversion works in rural settings.
