With support from the State Justice Institute, the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute is partnering with Fort Bend County and Brazoria County in Texas to advance The First 48 Initiative: Developing a Blueprint for Person-Centered and Care-Focused Adjudication.
This initiative focuses on connecting people to community-based care early, thereby reducing unnecessary incarceration for people with behavioral health (BH) needs. First 48 centers on the critical window of the first 48 hours after arrest, when decisions about detention are made and when people can be linked to care in lieu of incarceration.
Centered on this critical window and grounded in the research on the harmful impact of incarceration for people BH needs, First 48 focuses on building diversion options that return people with BH needs to the community and connects them to services post-arrest. In Fort Bend and Brazoria counties, local leaders, courts, hospitals, BH providers, and other stakeholders are collaborating to offer post-arrest diversion pathways by centering person-centered, care-focused adjudication. To support this system redesign, both counties are establishing Criminal Justice Coordinating Councils, which provide structure for data-informed planning, cross-system collaboration, and developing shared goals.
In Fort Bend County, the initiative emphasizes early identification of BH needs, legal advocacy at initial court appearances, and increased releases from jail. Brazoria County is focused on developing a crisis services facility and expanding post-arrest diversion options.
This work gives both counties a clearer path for increasing jail releases while connecting people to community-based care and offers a model for other communities.
November 1, 2025
The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) is proud to have the opportunity to further local efforts to address the unique needs of our children and families. In 2021, the NCJFCJ published the first of its kind, a toolkit for family court judges to better recognize red flags of families facing or …
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The National Center for State Courts‘ Institute for Court Management is excited to announce the development of a new, innovative e-learning course designed to educate and inspire state and local court employees. This approximately 3-hour online self-study course is tailored primarily for new hires and aims to address a critical gap in understanding the essential …
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The Nebraska Administrative Office of the Courts and Probation has collaborated with local trial judges, attorneys, and court staff to pilot a court-based Self-Help Center in Douglas County (Omaha, Nebraska). The first of its kind in Nebraska, this self-help center is located in the courthouse and provides on-site access to computers, printers, and legal resources …
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The National Center for State Courts, in cooperation with the ABA Commission on Law and Aging (COLA) and the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) created technology and data standards for court case management systems for guardianship and conservatorship cases. Most case management systems are designed to track cases from filing to disposition. However, courts are …
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What if families facing a crisis could receive support before entering the court system? In 2019, the National Center for State Courts received funding to identify promising practices in state and local courts that aim to prevent removal through non-adversarial collaborative team approaches and timely access to treatment and services. The Family Preservation Initiative (FPI) …
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The Courts in Nevada have invested in the development of electronic systems to improve transparency, accessibility and efficiency of court processes. These investments have significantly reduced the time taken from initiating a case to its final disposition. Unlike most Court processes, guardianships commence at disposition and can last for decades, for example the guardianship of …