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Shawnee County unveils jail mental‑health dashboard tied to Stepping Up effort
Summary
Shawnee County—s Department of Corrections presented a new public dashboard tracking serious mental illness (SMI) in the jail as part of the county—s participation in the national Stepping Up initiative; data show SMI‑classified bookings rose from roughly 10% to 26% and average SMI lengths of stay fell from about 62 to 30 days.
Shawnee County on Dec. 9 presented a new public dashboard intended to measure how the county manages people with serious mental illness within the criminal justice system.
"One of the biggest challenges that we face ... is how do we efficiently and effectively manage those who suffer with mental illness?" said Brian Cole, director of the Shawnee County Department of Corrections, as he introduced the county—s Stepping Up work and the dashboard built to show progress to the public.
Cole told commissioners the county adopted the Stepping Up framework, completed sequential intercept mapping to identify gaps—such as crisis‑center capacity, alternative sentencing options and discharge planning—and became an "innovator" county that tracks data to set measurable goals.
Deput…
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