Persons suffering from mental illness are at higher risk of involvement with the criminal justice system than most people. Sometimes limited resources make it impossible for jails to know that persons now confined were previously being served by community mental health agencies and/or inpatient hospitalizations in Illinois. The Jail Data Link project is targeted to assist in the identification and case management of these individuals. Jail Data Link represents an internet based communication system that permits authorized county jail staff and authorized agency clinical staff to better communicate so that improved jail discharge planning can occur. Careful release planning and linkage is critical to reducing both state hospital and jail recidivism. From the Phase I Data Link pilot project, we know that about 60% of persons not linked to community mental health agencies were re-arrested within 60 days. Only about 20% of those who were properly linked were re-arrested.
If jail staff have access to a community agency’s previous diagnostic and treatment information, needed medication and other supports may be made available more quickly to a newly confined detainee. Most importantly, intensive after-care planning and linkage for mentally ill clients when they are discharged from jails. Since data is automatically updated daily, the system enables agency staff to know the current Court Date and other relevant information so that they can be planning for possible discharge and follow-up care. They can also learn about any changes in diagnosis or medication that might have occurred while the client was jailed. The end result is more successful reintegration into the community at large, and a reduction in recidivism for mentally ill individuals.
There are three key sources of information in Data Link.
Division of Mental Health’s (DMH) Community Services Outpatient system is used to provide recent diagnostic and treatment information. This file is typically updated twice monthly and the community services data in Data Link are from the most recent available file.
Data Link contains information from daily census files provided by the jail. Those files contain identifiers and basic demographic information.
Also in use is the Inpatient Admission data from DMH, which is updated daily.
The third information source is new data entered by jail staff – and by community agencies – directly into the Data Link system during the course of this project. New data from community agencies represents treatment and diagnostic notes about the client’s current condition. New data from jail staff are often about pending charges and the client’s status with respect to the criminal justice system. Combined, these new entries facilitate communication between community agency staff and jail staff so that improved discharge planning can occur.
By checking Data Link, community agency staff may discover that one of their clients is being detained. The clinical case management personnel at the community agency may as a result reach out to jail staff and initiate the gradual process of joint discharge planning.
Participating community mental health agencies and jail staff log into the system to review the Positive Daily Crossmatch Results (PDCR). Agency staff (in particular the Case Manager) retrieve this information from a SSL Internet connection to learn the identity of the new mentally ill detainees who are the primary target population.
These are the individuals who were found to have been admitted to the jail on the previous day and who have a documented history of mental health services either inpatient or outpatient in the division of Mental Health. The Case Manager then initiates the process of conveying needed emergency information to jail staff about the detainee. Case Managers also arrange to make contact with the detainee as soon as possible, and begin the process of discharge planning by completing the Case Management Linkage Form (CLIF) form. Jail staff similarly retrieve the files on a daily basis so that they can take any needed emergency procedures and begin the process of joint discharge planning in concert with the Case Manager.
Special federal funds have been made available to support this project. County jails and DHS/DMH have prepared and executed data sharing agreements that allow DMH to disclose the contents of clients’ mental health treatment records to county jails – without that person’s consent – for the purpose of better providing mental health services to that individual while they are detained in the jail. The first phase of the Jail Data Link project was supported and enabled by Public Act 91-0536 (740 ILCS110/9.1). That law may be viewed at http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/publicacts/pubact91/acts/91-0536.html.
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Sample data and reports are displayed in this manual in order to explain how to use the Data Link system. To protect the confidentiality of information, individual identifying information about particular individuals has been masked.
Data Link is an ideal system for jails and community agencies to quickly communicate needed information via a HIPPA-compliant web-based system. However, it relies on data entry by one party, and then the other party accessing, reading and possibly acting on the shared information.
In addition, if time is of the essence, it is better to make a phone call, or to send a secure fax. This is particularly true if a client is known to be suicidal. For example, a community agency may be doing their daily check of the Data Link system and discover that a suicidal individual they have been serving is newly jailed. By viewing jail notes or jail location on Data Link, they may realize that the person is being segregated in the jail and that jail staff appear unaware of any psychiatric history. In this circumstance, the community agency should make this information known on Data Link. But they should also telephone the appropriate person at the jail to let them know that the individual was previously suicidal and that safety precautions should be taken immediately.
DMH Central office staff are responsible for ongoing database maintenance. They ensure that the daily maintenance of the system. Expansion is on-going and will continue in the future.