Yolo County Public Defender’s Office receives grant for mental health diversion
The Yolo County Public Defender’s Office will launch a new program to support people who may be eligible for pretrial mental health diversion using grant funding accepted by the county last month.
Defendants are eligible for pretrial mental health diversion if a mental illness contributed to the charged crime, provided they have certain mental health diagnoses and are not considered a safety risk.
“We want to change mental health diversion from a procedural option into something that is really going to be effective,” Yolo County Public Defender Tracie Olson said. If successful, the CONNECT program could lead to fewer days spent in jail and reduced recidivism, she said.
State law requires the court to consult with the prosecutor and defense attorney to determine whether a defendant qualifies. If a person is deemed eligible, they work with probation and mental health specialists to create a care plan. If they adhere to the plan, they receive treatment and avoid having the case appear on their criminal record.
The team will “make sure that people have access to the treatment,” Olson said. “Because sometimes getting the appointment is the problem, sometimes transportation is the problem, sometimes navigating Medi-Cal is the problem, we’re trying to eliminate all of those barriers.”
The CONNECT — or Client-Oriented Navigation, Engagement, Care and Treatment — program is housed in the county public defender’s office. It will hire two behavioral health case managers in newly funded positions alongside a team of peer mentors. The team will help defendants establish eligibility for mental health diversion and ensure they are positioned for success in the program.
The office currently employs six “mitigation specialists,” including licensed social workers and mental health professionals, to provide wraparound services to clients. The two new case managers will focus on helping clients enter pretrial mental health diversion and supporting them through the program.
The program is funded by a $585,000 grant from the state Public Defender’s Office through its Expanded Public Defense grant program, which helps public defenders hire specialists to support clients beyond their immediate legal cases.
The funding was awarded in December and accepted by the Yolo County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 10.
The Public Defender’s Office applied for the grant because pretrial mental health diversion cases are time- and resource-intensive, Olson said.
The Yolo County District Attorney's Office stopped making pretrial mental health diversion referrals last year, citing limited resources. The office rarely opposes defense-led efforts to establish eligibility, Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Raven said.
The prosecutor’s office has its own diversion court programs that arrange plea deals requiring treatment. Those deals can be revoked and the original charges reinstated if a defendant does not follow a treatment plan.
The office resumed participation in its plea-based mental health diversion court program but has not resumed its addiction intervention diversion court. Because the plea deals involve years of treatment, people continue benefiting from the programs even if no new participants enter them, Raven said.
Most referrals to the diversion program were rejected, Chief Deputy District Attorney Melinda Aiello said in July. The program suffered from limited participant slots, insufficient resources and low staffing, she said.
The District Attorney’s Office resumed making referrals for its mental health diversion court over the summer, Raven said. The DA’s office supports the public defender’s efforts to strengthen mental health diversion resources, he said.
Resources for mental health diversion were reallocated to implement Proposition 36, Raven said. Proposition 36, which voters passed in 2024, increases criminal penalties for people with multiple convictions for drug possession or theft. The measure also mandates treatment for people convicted of repeat drug offenses.
In the year after Proposition 36 took effect, Yolo County charged 130 people with drug possession. Twenty-three of those cases were resolved, with about half of defendants agreeing to mandated treatment instead of traditional penalties, according to a news release.
Yolo County created a new treatment court review process for Proposition 36 cases, which requires assessing a defendant’s eligibility and developing a treatment plan — a resource-heavy process the state does not fund, Raven said.
“Prop. 36 is mandated by law,” Raven said. “Many collaborative court programs are discretionary.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
