When someone breaks their leg, we send them to the hospital. When someone has a heart attack, we call an ambulance. When someone has a mental health crisis that causes them to lose touch with reality, we throw them in jail so their inconvenient behavior happens somewhere out of sight and out of mind.
Criminalizing mental health overloads the prison system, often resulting in dehumanizing experiences and a vast divide between those with debilitating mental illnesses and the community around them. A jail diversion center and efforts to collaborate with vulnerable populations are necessary ways to bridge this divide. On Feb. 11, San Antonio City Council held a Metropolis Council B session and moved to fund $30,000 of a $100,000 feasibility study for a diversion center in Bexar County. The center will provide people with mental illness treatment rather than jail time. There is no end to reasons why this was the best move they could make.
“Justice doesn’t look like confining people with mental health issues in dehumanizing conditions,” said Judith Norman, professor and department chair of philosophy at Trinity.
Norman teaches Moral Imagination and U.S. Incarceration, a class dedicated to forming a community between Trinity students and incarcerated individuals with different life experiences. Students travel to the Torres Unit, a prison in Hondo, Texas and form a learning circle with the men incarcerated there. She believes the diversion center is a “brilliant” way to take pressure off jails while getting those who are experiencing mental health crises access to care.
According to the San Antonio Report, the average wait time in Bexar County for a state forensic psychiatric hospital bed for non-maximum-security inmates was 277 days. In addition, there are between 80-100 people with mental health disorders in Bexar County Jail every day for low-level offenses, according to the Center for Health Care Services President Jelynne LeBlanc Jamison. A diversion center could spare 100 people from spending 277 days untreated in a jail cell.
Bexar County Jail is nearing full capacity. As of Aug. 11, 2025, the prison operates at 96.2% capacity and is short 147 jailers. The facility is overworked and overcrowded — the last place I would want to be if my mental health was deteriorating. On top of that, Bexar County Jail Sheriff Javier Salazar expressed that the jail has become a de facto health care provider for hundreds of people who do not need to be incarcerated.
Unfortunately Bexar County is not alone in these damning outcomes. Texas spends $650 million in jail costs for individuals with mental illness annually. Nationwide, 44% of people in locally-run jails have been diagnosed with a mental disorder. The problem has gotten much worse than it ever should have — all because the government would rather spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year to keep individuals with mental illnesses incarcerated than spend a fraction of that amount to get them treatment.
Fortunately, diversion centers seem to be an effective solution. A similar initiative in Harris County, Texas found that participants were less likely to enter jail and less likely to reoffend. They also found considerable cost savings for the county — a whopping $9.2 million. This is how we build community. This is how we support the people around us who need our help the most.
“Whatever a just society looks like, it has to include everyone,” Norman said. And to me, it’s a no-brainer. Justice should be about ensuring the safety of our community members, especially the ones who would benefit more from medical care than confinement.
Some may argue that these programs allow people who have committed crimes to avoid facing consequences for their actions or that diversion centers let people “off the hook.” However, there is no hook. These people need treatment, not arbitrary punishment. Throwing people in a jail cell when they could easily thrive in their communities after receiving medical care helps no one.
Yes, a diversion center would allow many to avoid facing jail time, but it doesn’t mean they are left to go back to the community without a little extra support to ensure they won’t commit more crimes. Participants in diversion programs are often required to complete community service and attend counseling sessions to prevent recidivism. They may also collaborate with a case manager to help keep them on the right track, as well as gain access to resources such as housing assistance to lower the chance that they end up back in the justice system.
The benefits here far outweigh the costs. We should support mental health, not criminalize it. Our communities should care for those who require more support, not cast them to the sidelines. The diversion center is a necessary first step to recognizing and supporting differences — the first step to building a community where we promote healing over punishment.
*This column was updated on Feb 18, 2026.
