Does Bail Reform Decarcerate Mental Illness? Public Health Challenges for a Large County Jail System.

Although bail reform reduces jail census, whether or not its effects extend to incarcerated individuals with mental illness is unknown. Using a novel high-sensitivity measure of serious mental illness (SMI) from jail-based electronic health records, we conducted an interrupted time series analysis assessing the impact of Illinois bail reform on total jail registrations and the nested subset with SMI ± co-occurring substance use disorder (SUD). Compared with a decline in total jail registrations, admission of individuals with SMI ± SUD showed no decline.