Diversion First Initiative
Maine
Law enforcement mental health diversion connecting people to treatment.
Exceptional Impact Potential
AltReform's model rates this initiative in the top tier for predicted reform impact. It scores highly across recidivism reduction, racial equity, cost-effectiveness, and political feasibility. This type of reform, when fully implemented, has historically delivered measurable system-wide improvement within 3–5 years.
Mental Health Reform Context
Jails are now America's largest mental health providers.
More than 20% of people incarcerated have a serious mental illness — yet prisons offer little treatment and punishment exacerbates symptoms. Mental health diversion courts, crisis response teams, and community treatment alternatives have demonstrated strong outcomes: lower incarceration, reduced hospitalization, and improved quality of life. These programs also reduce burden on emergency services.
Impact, Operations and Cost
This reform has demonstrated strong projected impact in Maine, scoring in the top tier of AltReform's evaluation framework. Programs of this type and quality consistently outperform the status quo on recidivism reduction, cost savings, and racial equity outcomes. As of 2019, this initiative is actively operating and accumulating outcome data.
Mental health diversion programs intercept individuals in psychiatric crisis before or during contact with the criminal justice system. Mobile crisis teams staffed by clinicians respond to 911 calls in place of or alongside law enforcement. Pre-arrest diversion diverts individuals identified with mental illness directly to treatment at the point of encounter. Mental health courts provide a specialized judicial track with treatment-based conditions rather than punitive sentencing. Community treatment facilities provide the service infrastructure that makes diversion viable.
Mobile crisis teams cost between $800,000 and $3 million annually, depending on call volume and geography. Mental health court programs typically cost $3,000 to $6,000 per participant. These costs compare favorably against the average daily cost of jail detention, which exceeds $100 per day in most jurisdictions, and the higher cost of psychiatric hospitalization.
Mobile crisis program launch requires 12 to 18 months for hiring, training, and dispatch protocol integration. Mental health court establishment requires 12 to 24 months, including judicial training and treatment partnership development. Full outcome data, including hospitalization and arrest recurrence, becomes available at 24 to 36 months.
- →73 to 86 percent of mental health calls diverted from arrest when crisis teams are deployed
- →Up to 50 percent reduction in psychiatric hospitalization among program participants
- →30 percent lower rearrest rates for mental health court participants versus traditional prosecution
- →Reduction in officer-involved incidents in mental health contexts
Similar Reforms in Other States
Data Sources
Program data sourced from state legislative records and the National Conference of State Legislatures. Impact metrics from Bureau of Justice Statistics, RAND Corporation criminal justice research, Vera Institute, and The Sentencing Project. AltReform scores generated by our ML model trained on 20+ years of state-level reform outcomes. Statistics are the most recent available (2021–2024).