Utah Launches Workgroups to Divert Behavioral Health Populations from Jails to Treatment
Utah state, county, and city officials are implementing 25 recommendations to divert nonviolent individuals with mental illness and substance use disorders from jails into behavioral health treatment, modeled on Miami-Dade County's approach. The plan, developed by the Leifman Group in partnership with Salt Lake County in late 2025, involves new workgroups with law enforcement, courts, behavioral health providers, and other stakeholders. Governor Spencer Cox has endorsed the effort. The initiative seeks to modernize behavioral health services for populations currently cycling through criminal justice systems.
State-level diversion initiatives can increase Medicaid behavioral health utilization and require coordination between justice systems and Medicaid-funded community providers, particularly for populations eligible under behavioral health expansion or justice-involved Medicaid categories.
Behavioral Health
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