KPBS Midday Edition

DA On Improving County's Approach To Helping Those With Mental Illness

By Jade Hindmon / KPBS Midday Edition Co-Host, Brooke Ruth / Senior Producer of Audio News

Published May 24, 2019 at 11:15 AM PDT

This story was published more than 5 years ago.

San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan speaks during a news conference at the Hall of Justice downtown, May 21, 2019.

DA On Improving County's Approach To Helping Those With Mental Illness

The San Diego County District Attorney’s office is out with a "blueprint" that lays out a new approach for addressing mental health and the criminal justice system in the county.

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At least one in three adults in the criminal justice system has a mental illness, while one in five adults in the overall population has a mental illness.

That's according to a report from the San Diego County District Attorney’s office, that lays out a new approach for addressing mental health and the criminal justice system in the county.

DOCUMENT: 911 Mental Health Checklist

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"The recommendations in this report can serve as the basis of this strategic plan from the criminal justice perspective. This will not be easy as what we need is a sea change — a significant transformation of an outdated approach into a system that strives for public safety, fairness, and dignity," District Attorney Summer Stephan wrote in the report.

Stephan joins Midday Edition on Friday to discuss how the report findings will be enacted in San Diego County.

KPBS Midday Edition

Jade Hindmon

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Jade Hindmon is the host of KPBS Midday Edition. She connects San Diego through fearless conversations that inform, inspire and make you think. Prior to Midday Edition Jade was a reporter and fill-in anchor in the KPBS newsroom covering everything from politics to policing and the economy. Her award winning work spans network affiliates across the southeast and midwest. As a very proud Rattler, Jade studied broadcast journalism and political science at Florida A&M University. She takes a special interest in topics about democracy, accountability, racial justice, science and wellness.

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Brooke Ruth

Brooke Ruth is the senior producer of Audio News. She previously served as a producer for "KPBS Midday Edition" and a web producer. Before joining KPBS, Brooke was a web editor for four newspapers and a local television station. She began her career in news at the Imperial Valley Press. She has also been part of the web teams at the Napa Valley Register, North County Times, and U-T San Diego. While pursuing her undergraduate degree at UCLA in psychology, she worked on the student newspaper, the Daily Bruin.

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KPBS has created a public safety coverage policy to guide decisions on what stories we prioritize, as well as whose narratives we need to include to tell complete stories that best serve our audiences. This policy was shaped through months of training with the Poynter Institute and feedback from the community. You can read the full policy here.

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