The CivicLex Weekly - March 8, 2021

The CivicLex Podcast

Here’s one thing this week to watch in city hall… a presentation on the impact of the Fayette County Mental Health Court.

📺 - Watch this presentation live on March 9 at 1:00pm.

Why should you care?

If you care about reducing homelessness, prison recidivism, or addressing community mental health, you should pay attention to this meeting.

With the increased, bipartisan national focus on criminal justice reform and reducing incarceration rates amongst communities of color, and many places are looking for solutions. Mental health courts are one of the many tools available to build a more humane criminal justice system.

Nationally, Mental Health Courts have shown to be effective tools at addressing the recidivism rate, or the rate at which individuals return to the criminal justice system after being released from prison. However, the consensus around their impact on mental health status among participants is less certain, as is their impact on police recontact.

During this annual update from Fayette County Mental Health Court, NAMI Lexington, who administers the program, will ask the council and the administration to continue funding its operating costs. This would have a $200,000 impact on LFUCG’s budget.

Plus: That thing, last week and more updates from city hall.

Read more about these issues and more at civiclex.org