Jail Diversion and Referral to Healthcare
As the Crisis Intervention Team program was implemented, it became clear that CIT decreased the likelihood of an individual with mental illness ending up in the criminal justice system. CIT also increased the chances of an appropriate health care referral. Thus, the CIT program has an important side effect of jail diversion (Dupont & Cochran, 2000). These two outcomes of crisis de-escalation and appropriate referral to healthcare are part of the CIT intervention strategy (see Dupont, 2008; Compton, Bahora, Watson & Oliva, 2008).