McLean County's interagency Behavioral Health Coordinating Council [BHCC] has a new plan detailing countywide mental health goals and action items for the next three years.
The Behavioral Health Action Plan is the third such plan, divided into three focus areas: prevention and recidivism reduction; community engagement and outreach and service access and delivery.
“The BHCC made a conscious effort in the spring to take what was a very comprehensive, sometimes unwieldy document and make it more user-friendly,” said McLean County judge Rebecca Foley, who steers the council.
McLean County Board chair Elizabeth Johnston also sits on the council. In an interview for WGLT’s Sound Ideas last week, she said she pushed for SMART goals in the action plan, an acronym to describe objectives that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant/relatable and timely.
The 2026 Behavioral Health Action Plan is limited to 10 pages of succinct recommendations, with tailored goals for reducing justice system involvement, promoting public engagement and improving access to services. A 14-point plan developed with the county’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council [CJCC] specifically looks to curb recidivism and prevent initial interactions with the justice system. That interagency body includes representatives from law enforcement, the state’s attorney and public defender offices, the judiciary, court services [probation] and McLean County Jail.
Emerging adults
Among the key recommendations involving CJCC, several address topics already on their radar, including the creation of a new problem-solving court for emerging adults.
Statewide data suggests 18- to 25-year-olds respond differently to interactions with law enforcement, leading to high rates of arrest. During a July presentation to the CJCC, Loyola University researcher Lisa Jacobs said emerging adults are more likely to perceive aggression and anger from police officers, requiring de-escalation techniques that differ from older adults.
“I think the CJCC is very interested in… starting to home in a little more on the emerging adult population,” said Foley, who helped establish the county’s recovery court for justice-involved individuals with mental illness, and the novel family treatment court.
McLean County has a specialized probation program for 18- to 25-year-olds and has considered adding a problem-solving court in the past.
Foley said such a program involves many partners—and cost.
“I haven’t studied it to any extent, but it would be likely for those involved in the criminal justice system. So, your partners would include the state’s attorney’s office, the public defender’s office, court services, which is also known as probation. They might need a treatment provider like in Drug Court. They might need a mental health provider like in Recovery Court.”
And more: Young adults enrolled in such a problem-solving court may need support with finding employment, education, housing, etc.
“All those things are necessary to make a successful program come to life,” she said.
Who pays?
Initiatives suggested in the Behavioral Health Action Plan [BHAP] can be allocated funds from a shared sales tax agreement between McLean County, the Town of Normal and the City of Bloomington. Those bodies have disputed whether to pause accrual of that money while the county undergoes an audit of its Mental Health and Public Safety Fund.
The BHCC, who develops the BHAP, doesn’t control the money; that is the job of another independent council, the Public Safety Fund Advisory Council. Existing CJCC programs related to mental and behavioral health paid for by the shared sales tax fund were approved in the latest McLean County budget.
Records management overhaul
The Behavioral Health Action Plan, designed to lay out goals through 2028, champions continued progress rolling out a series of new record-keeping systems coordinating shared access among law enforcement, the courts, circuit clerk, coroner, probation, the jail and Juvenile Detention Center, and the McLean County public defender.
The current Electronic Justice System [EJS] was instituted in the 1990s and uses unsupported software.
“I use that system every day in my work,” said Foley. “Ultimately, the ideal goal would be to start integrating behavioral health data that we could share amongst the agencies. If, for example, there’s someone who has a mental health diagnosis—what that is. And that way if law enforcement knows that when they’re responding, they’ll know how to properly deal with that person.”
Improved data-tracking
County jails play an outsized role in providing mental health services and treatment. According to Illinois State University’s Stevenson Center currently, more than half of McLean County’s jail population has mental health issues. It’s a data-point tracked by law enforcement, intake staff and corrections officers by observing symptoms and behaviors.
“In some cases, it’s not readily identifiable,” she said. “Having that heads-up will be beneficial and hopefully ensure everyone’s safety a little more.”
Including more precise behavioral health data, Foley said, can also aid decision makers in the criminal justice system in making more informed decisions.
“If other partners can access that we can reduce duplication of effort, we can hopefully shorten response times in terms of sending them off to an agency for a warm handoff for any type of services that they need,” she said.
The action plan suggests using data-informed programs to reduce recidivism, including reentry supports for people returning to the community from prison or jail and diversion programs. One recommendation is expanding a grant-supported pilot program monitoring those with court-ordered psychiatric care to those charged with misdemeanors. Those who successfully complete the voluntary program are eligible to have their charges dropped.
Understanding such programs’ impact on recidivism is difficult to track. The county has not recently attempted to measure recidivism. And a software glitch has prevented accurate tracking by the Illinois Department of Corrections since 2022, according to reporting from WGN.
Foley suggested collecting data both between and within programs, to monitor success overall and identify sticking points at certain phases of a problem-solving court or diversion program.
“If we don’t know if it’s working, then what are we doing it for?” she said.
