Prescription pain pills. Photo: U.S. Air Force/Tech. Sgt. Mark R. W. Orders-Woempner
The Children’s Home of Jefferson County will be one of three pilot locations for a new state behavioral health program.
It will receive $2 million dollars to reduce reliance on law enforcement as primary responders in Jefferson and Lewis counties.
The state program was inspired by the case of Daniel Prude, who died in Rochester police custody while experiencing a mental health crisis in 2020.
It aims to shift official responses to mental health or substance abuse crises away from automatic police involvement and towards a behavioral health and medical response.