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.
May 1, 2025
The National Center for State Courts announces the upcoming “Guide for Remote Dependency Hearings,” a comprehensive resource, funded by SJI, developed as an addendum to the Remote Proceeding Toolkit. Child abuse and neglect hearings require additional considerations for effective remote proceedings given their confidential nature and multiple participants. The Guide for Remote Dependency Hearings offers specialized …
April 1, 2025
In October 2024, the Pennsylvania Courts held a first-ever statewide Behavioral Health Summit that brought together over 500 judges, leaders, and stakeholders to address the growing behavioral health crisis within the judicial system. Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Kevin Dougherty emphasized the increasing severity and frequency of behavioral health challenges and called the summit a “call …
March 1, 2025
In 2016, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) developed the Enhanced Resource Guidelines (ERGs) to outline best practices for handling child abuse and neglect cases. To support implementation, NCJFCJ launched a project to train select jurisdictions in ERG-based practices. The ERGs emphasize keeping families together, ensuring access to justice, cultural responsiveness, …
February 1, 2025
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 …
January 1, 2025
The National Center for State Courts (NCSC) has brought together experts and practitioners to develop comprehensive guidance on AI Readiness for the state courts. The project, funded by SJI, aims to provide resources for courts along the whole spectrum of AI maturity, from courts that are just beginning to think about AI to courts that …
December 1, 2024
The RFK National Resource Center for Juvenile Justice (RFKNRCJJ) has used a proven framework to partner with state and local jurisdictions to conduct multiple probation and youth justice system reviews designed to improve outcomes for youth and families at-risk or involved in the juvenile justice systems for more than fifteen years. RFK’s successful technical assistance …