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Abstract: 

Recently, Douglas County, Nebraska has been experiencing a high volume of mentally ill persons in its criminal justice system. As a response, a new mental health diversion project was implemented in order to provide an innovative means of treatment and community reintegration of mentally ill persons who have contact with the Douglas County criminal justice system. With an award from the National Association of Counties, the Douglas County Attorney proposed to plan and develop the necessary framework for this project. This article explains the planning process, the implementation process, and future plans for the program which aims to replace incarceration with treatment for mentally ill offenders.

Keywords: mental health

Affiliations:  1: Douglas County, Nebraska; 2: Douglas County, Nebraska.