Justice Project committee narrows outcome measures to track jail and behavioral-health results

The Justice Project Oversight and Planning Committee met March 20 and reviewed a draft performance measurement plan that applies four high-level outcome measures from the national Stepping Up initiative to Whatcom County’s justice and behavioral-health work.

Committee consultant Julia (VillageReach) told members the measures—jail bookings, jail length of stay, connections to treatment and recidivism—are intended to be disaggregated so the county can track outcomes specifically for people with serious mental illness while retaining the ability to look at the overall jail population. "If we set up measures in a way that lets us disaggregate to look at the general or to look at the specific population that does have mental illness, that allows us to then also look at the general jail population," Julia said.

The nut graf: Committee members supported the high-level framing but repeatedly raised measurement and scope questions. Discussion focused on how to define and identify serious mental illness (SMI) for reporting, whether to expand measures to include substance-use…