Current Activities

County Level Advocacy

SUPPORT: CARE NOT JAILS

EBSHC worked with Decarcerate Alameda County to propose adoption of Care First—Jail Last, a program designed to focus significant early resources on housing and treatment options for persons with SMI and prevent the use of jails as default mental hospitals. Proposed by the late Supervisor Wilma Chan, Care First—Jail Last was unanimously adopted by the Alameda County Board of Supervisors in 2020. The first meeting of its implementation Task Force was held in March 2022.

SUPPORT: National Lawyers Guild

EBSHC supported the National Lawyers Guild’s (unsuccessful) opposition to a court settlement that would fund mental health services at the Santa Rita County Jail instead of community-based care and supportive services. Mental illness is a medical condition. The jail environment is punitive by design and is not conducive to healing.

This effort was accomplished in collaboration with two organizations also committed to changing the way we care for persons living with mental illness: FASMI and the CARE First Community Coalition (see below).

FASMI

Families Advocating for the Seriously Mentally Ill (FASMI) is composed of family members and caregivers who believe that laws, policies, and public health departments must remove barriers to treatment and create a system committed to sustained treatment instead of short-term crisis intervention for persons with severe neurobiological disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. FASMI calls for a multi-disciplinary approach that integrates inpatient and outpatient treatment along a continuum of care that encompasses both medical care and the social supports needed to enable persons with severe mental illness to live full lives.

Care First Community Coalition

The Care First Community Coalition is composed of Alameda County organizations and community members who are committed to reducing the number of individuals in the Santa Rita jail who have mental/behavioral health concerns and preventing their future criminalization. Members authored Alameda County’s Care First—Jail Last resolution and advocate for a robust, community-centered Care First plan that is administered in a racially equitable way.