Dallas County officials spent part of last week learning about Miami-Dade County’s successful jail diversion program to determine whether modeling it could reduce jail crowding here.
Retired Florida judge Steve Leifman, the creator of Miami-Dade diversion program, led a days-long summit in Dallas to explain how it could work here. Leifman and his team were invited to present the successful 26-year old Criminal Mental Health Project model as a less-expensive alternative to sending Dallas County officials and staff to Florida.
A key element of the Miami-Dade model is how people experiencing mental health issues are handled by law enforcement, jails and courts…