Accelerator | Unbundle Policing: Reimagine Public Safety Challenge
Criminal Justice Lab at NYU Law
One-line solution summary:
<p>Training videos for the CJL HealthLink Diversion Tool to streamline and increase uptake</p>
What specific problem are you solving?
Across the country, millions of individuals come into contact with the criminal justice system because they struggle with mental illness and substance use disorders. Many of these individuals repeatedly cycle through our jails, often because they are never provided with services that can address their underlying problems. Because we fail to safely address significant, underlying drivers of crime, we pay an enormous cost – both human and financial.
Until now, we have not given the police – or other first responders – the tools they need to identify individuals who suffer from mental illness and substance use disorders in the field. Today's criminal justice system puts enormous pressure on police officers to follow the traditional law enforcement path of either arresting an individual when a charge can be brought, or telling them to move along. When an officer deviates from that model, they rely on their subjective judgment for decision-making and assume personal and professional risk in doing so.
Our research revealed that almost half of the arrestees in our pilot jurisdictions (48%) could be diverted from the criminal justice system because of behavioral health issues, highlighting the tremendous impact this tool can have on our justice system.
Pitch your solution.
The Criminal Justice Lab designed, piloted, and validated a simple and accurate screening tool that can be administered in the field by law enforcement in minutes. Our team of experts successfully developed a 10-question tool with excellent predictive validity that can be rapidly administered in a triage setting to flag individuals who could safely benefit from diversion out of the criminal justice system and into behavioral health treatment. We believe this will dramatically move the needle on future criminal justice involvement by providing officers with an objective basis upon which to identify individuals for diversion. While many instruments exist to diagnose behavioral health issues in a medical setting with high accuracy, they are too long for use in a triage setting. Our goal was to design a tool that would require minimal training to administer so the cost and time to train officers would not be prohibitive to its implementation.
Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution.
The CJL HealthLink tool has been piloted and validated. It is currently being implemented by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, and it is being piloted by regional EMS in McLean County, Illinois. We are in talks to launch the use of the tool in North Carolina as well. East Orange, New Jersey will begin administering the tool at the end of 2021 as well.
Our solution's stage of development:
Growth: An organization with an established product, service, or business model rolled out in one or, ideally, several communities, which is poised for further growthWhere are you based?
New York, NY, USASolution Team
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Solution Name
Criminal Justice Lab at NYU Law