Bringing criminal justice diversion services to scale in Oklahoma

When Oklahomans cannot access the mental health supports they need, they are often funneled into the criminal legal system, where they suffer worse outcomes at a much higher cost to society than if they had been treated in the community.

New research by Healthy Minds finds that Oklahoma could save millions of taxpayer dollars by bringing its criminal justice diversion services to scale. In growing existing crisis response systems, Oklahoma could avoid 20,000 jail bookings and 45,000 mental health-related hospitalizations each year, in addition to diverting about 5% of annual 911 calls for behavioral health crises to be better handled by dedicated mental health crisis lines. 

We also found that Oklahoma could achieve $87 million in taxpayer savings by diverting more about 19,000 more people to alternative court programs for treatment instead of traditional prosecution.

Our new report outlines where Oklahoma's diversion services must grow to meet demand — and quantifies the economic benefits our state can expect in return.

Download the full report

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Key findings

Oklahoma can expect to save about $427 million in health care costs each year by offering a fully realized, specialized response for behavioral health crises (which includes mobile crisis response and short-term crisis beds), compared to the old way of relying on emergency rooms and inpatient hospitals to shoulder these issues alone. While Oklahoma is already realizing a portion of this impact due to recent expansion of its mental health crisis system, our analysis shows there is still room for progress. For example, we estimate that Oklahoma’s capacity for crisis calls through 988 and local crisis lines would need to at least double, and Oklahoma would likely need additional mobile crisis teams, too. Beyond the cost savings, a comprehensive crisis system can significantly reduce the need for police response to mental health emergencies, limiting unnecessary involvement in the criminal legal system.

We estimate that over 147,000 — about 5% — of all calls to 911 in Oklahoma each year could be diverted to 988, which would mean a significant decrease in callers interacting with law enforcement.

We also estimate that more than 20,000 jail bookings and more than 45,000 emergency room visits could, potentially, be diverted to urgent recovery centers and other short-term crisis settings where care is more effective, much less costly, and avoids involvement with the criminal legal system.

Once someone has engaged with the criminal legal system, however, opportunities for diversion still exist: Oklahoma has untapped potential to expand the use of treatment courts. Currently, Oklahoma’s mental health and drug courts treat about 3,300 people a year — only meeting about 15% of the need for these programs. However, we estimate that at least 19,000 more Oklahomans would be eligible for and benefit from these programs each year.

Expanding treatment courts would result in greater taxpayer savings than the costs of implementing these programs. By investing $24 million to expand treatment courts to meet the demand for these programs, Oklahoma would generate $111 million in savings, for a net savings of $87 million. By offering an alternative to traditional prosecution, treatment courts reduce the likelihood someone will reoffend — saving taxpayers dollars through reduced recidivism — and increase their chances of living successfully in the community.
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Recommendations for Oklahoma

To capture the cost savings we calculated and to improve outcomes by diverting people away from the criminal legal system, we offer several recommendations for Oklahoma: first, we should expand and strengthen Oklahoma’s behavioral health crisis system, which can serve as a first line of defense to keep people from becoming involved with the criminal legal system. 

We should also expand Oklahoma’s capacity to serve Oklahomans through treatment courts and divert more Oklahomans to these alternative programs to traditional prosecution.

Finally, we must invest in the infrastructure that make these changes possible and ensure strong data collection processes to track outcomes. Some of this infrastructure already exists: Oklahoma’s County Community Safety Investment Fund, for example, is an important resource for counties to fund diversion programs and improve mental health and substance use services. Counties can also apply for opioid abatement settlement funds to support these kinds of initiatives.