Most of Santa Clara County Supervisor Jim Beall's proposed mental-health jail diversion plan won the endorsement of the Board of Supervisors June 4.
The supervisors voted for the sections of the plan that don't require an outlay of cash, including increased education for law officers about mental-health problems, expanded use of the sobering station at the old county jail and improved procedures for follow-up of mentally ill defendants who have been released from custody. Creation of a Mental Health Mobile Crisis Unit and expansion of day-care dropoff centers for adult males was put off until county budget hearings the week of June 17.
Beall developed his proposal with a blue-ribbon committee of representatives from the courts, law enforcement, the jails and mental-health agencies, contending that too may people who need mental-health treatment are put in jail.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, June 19, 1996.
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