Last year, the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office created a new job inside the county jail aimed at rethinking how the community responds to people in crisis.
The idea had two parts: to keep people who don’t need to go to jail from ending up there, and help those incarcerated get back on their feet once they’re released.
Now, the sheriff’s office is calling the program a success and is looking to expand it.
In its first year, the jail diversion program handled 252 referrals tied to encounters with deputies. Often, those referrals began with a deputy or bystander calling dispatch and saying someone needed help — but maybe not jail.
In cases where people were referred to the program, just shy of 80% avoided being booked into the county jail. Instead, they were connected with services such as addiction treatment or mental health care.
“We're trying to bridge the gap between law enforcement and the community,” said Sara Bush, the county’s jail diversion discharge specialist.
The idea for Bush’s position gained traction after a Wayne State University study found that 38% of the Grand Traverse County jail population suffered from serious mental health issues. Many also had substance use disorders.
Part of Bush’s discharge work includes helping people get into sobriety probation programs and supporting them as they move through the system — often assisting probation officers with heavy caseloads.
“When you're monitoring 120 people on pretrial or community corrections, [probation officers] don't have time to connect these people, so they end up being in our jail longer,” Bush said.
Diversion doesn’t just happen after someone is booked. Bush estimates she rides along with deputies three to four times a week, responding to calls in real time.
“I made it a point to ride with almost every deputy because I want to go on calls with them," she said. "I want to bring a different light. We bounce stuff off each other, which is great. I have a select six of them that are awesome."
Ride alongs can make a difference
Bush recalled one teenager to whose home deputies had responded 72 times in a year. The environment, she said, involved abuse and instability. Deputies were repeatedly called to the same house, dealing with the same issues.
Instead of allowing the pattern to continue, Bush suggested a different path: enrolling the teen in the Michigan Youth Challenge Academy, a cost-free alternative education program that blends high school coursework with a boot camp-style structure for at-risk youth.
“We want to be the leader in this. We want to be the pilot program where other entities look at us and go, Wow, there is another avenue other than just incarceration."MICHAEL SHEA | Grand Traverse County Sheriff
The teen chose to enroll, and — if all goes well — Bush plans to attend his graduation in June.
“We took somebody who is in a not great environment, struggling in school, had some abuse issues going on. We took him out of that element, gave him a chance, and he recognized that. And to me, that defines success,” she said.
Grand Traverse County Sheriff Michael Shea sees the program’s early results as enough of a success that he now would like to add a second position.
“We want to be the leader in this. We want to be the pilot program where other entities look at us and go, 'Wow, there is another avenue, other than just incarceration,'” Shea said.
He emphasized that while some individuals do need to be incarcerated, others — particularly those experiencing mental illness — require a different response.
“If you have a mental health injury, you should go to the doctor, not go to jail. And currently we're sending people to jail,” Shea said.
Shea plans to present the program’s results to the Grand Traverse County Board of Commissioners and seek approval to expand.
“We are just, in my opinion, scratching the tip of the iceberg here, because we only have one person doing it," he said. "If one person is able to generate these kind of numbers, what could two do?”
