Day 11- Jail Diversion

I began my day by being 20 minutes early to a Jail Diversion meeting at 8:30 am. The meeting was meant to accomplish the following:
1. Jail Diversion Memorandum of Understanding
2. Jail Diversion Bylaws
3. Nueva Esperanza Clinic Update
4. Other new businesses

We mostly ended up talking about how to implement these jail diversion programs and the person who led the meeting emphasized the fact that it was crucial for agencies to work together in order for jail diversion to be successful.

First and foremost, jail diversion is a "humane solution to the criminalization and inappropirate criminal detention of individuals with mental disorders." In other words, individuals who commit crimes such as urinating in a public place openly may have some sort of mental illness and it is not fair to send them straight to prison because their mental needs will not be addressed. I think the idea is great because you can't just send mentally ill individuals to prison because of the crimes they have committed without taking into account the root of the problem.

Like all meetings, with various groups represented such as the Sheriff County, the Police Department, the University of Behavioral Health, and the Opportunity Center, there was a difference in opinions. But the main point was for all these agencies to begin working together. Since an individual in need of mental help and who is imprisoned is not only involved with the Police Department, but also the psychiatric center and the mental health court and other agenices, working together is crucial. Then once a history of collaboration is shown and successful results are presented, then more money can be provided to mental health in general since there's some sort of solidarty. If I can summarize this meeting in one word that needs more attention and action is TEAMWORK. And it's crazy because I'm beginning to realize how territorial some of these agencies actually are. It's as if ego seeps into organizations when working for the general public, which is quite sad because if by collaborating and sharing ideas and information is going to provide for better services then what's the hold up about?

I know I'm just an intern who very recently started to work for this agency, but by making the calls to various organizations and attending meetings with different representatives, it surprises me how many agencies want to work alone and deal with their consumers by themselves when there is so much room for collaboration to provide for stronger, better results.