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Bars to prison or jail cells
Roger, a Fairfax County resident, was homeless and had a lot of experience with substance use, psychiatric challenges and law enforcement.
During one of his recent incarcerations, he got a referral to the Fairfax County Jail Diversion Team and was able to get the support he needed, including Medicaid health insurance, a monthly Social Security disability payment, a regular doctor and assistance with ongoing health issues.
He now lives in a local group home, where he is doing well and has a much brighter future ahead of him.
Another resident, a military veteran, said the resources offered to him as part of the jail diversion program helped change him from "a lonely drunk to a married dad with a career. My mom says I’ve become who I was always supposed to be."
Now in its eighth year, the Fairfax County Diversion First program is continuing its success, expanding its services and improving crisis response.
Diversion First is an initiative that strives to give people with mental illness, substance abuse disorders or developmental disabilities an alternative to jail. The system includes behavioral health crisis response and a broad spectrum of County agencies working together for the benefit of people in need.
According to the Diversion First program, it was first started in 2016 because "too many people are in jail due to mental health issues. Jail is not the appropriate place to provide mental health treatment." Further, "1 in 5 Americans has a mental illness. Having a mental illness is not a crime."
In the past year, a Virginia law sometimes called the Marcus Alert law, tells "public safety and behavioral health agencies to coordinate responses to behavioral health crises and divert individuals to care whenever feasible," according to a Fairfax County report. Increased state support means the 911 operators can connect individuals seeking behavioral health assistance in non-emergency situations to the Regional Crisis Call Center (RCCC). (In Northern Virginia, the RCCC is operated by HopeLink Behavioral Health.)
In 2023, the Diversion First program expanded and has four teams responding to calls for service throughout the region, seven days a week, 12 p.m. to 12 a.m.
As of December 31, 2023, co-responder teams had responded to over 2,100 calls for service from individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis. Close to 50% of calls were resolved in the field, according to Fairfax County officials, and 26% of calls resulted in a diversion from arrest.
In addition to providing crisis assistance, the system works to provide post-incident care, including connecting residents to needed support systems, peer recovery specialists and continuing outreach. Members of a Community Response Team (CRT), which include a Fire and Rescue Department technician and a Community Services Board clinician, lead this.
The Diversion First principles have expanded to the court system's mental health docket, drug court, and juvenile and domestic relations court, diverting individuals from jail and keeping them on the right track in the following years.
For example, in the juvenile court system, "The goal of diversion is to hold youth accountable for their actions and provide a learning opportunity without causing the long-term negative consequences associated with formal involvement in the criminal justice system," according to the County's report. Six months after completing the program, 88% of youth had no new charges or arrests.
See the recently-released full report from FY 2023 here.
