Legislative win for mental health data

Thanks to Texas Jail Project’s advocacy, the state legislature passed two trail-blazing Riders in Senate Bill 1 during the 2025 legislative session. Continuity of Care Query Report – SB 1 from 89 (R) 2025 (Pg 644 Item 4) will generate more transparency about mental illness in county jail populations. The rider mandates that Texas Commission on Jail Standards (TCJS):

• Collect and summarize data about people in jail who have interacted with the state mental health services. This data will be broken down by county, Local Mental Health and Behavioral Health Authority, and Local Intellectual and Developmental Disability Authority
• Study patterns in the revolving door by identifying the highest utilizers of the public mental health and pretrial detention system in the five largest counties and a handful of smaller counties chosen by size and region
• Identify individuals from recorded in-custody deaths who were an “exact match,” according to the Continuity of Care Query (CCQ) outcomes and the ones who may have been a “probable match,” but later determined to have received mental health services from the state
• Measure the CCQ’s “probable” matches that triggered further collection of information by a magistrate and determine how many “probable” matches turned into “exact” matches
• Make recommendations on improving the quality of CCQ matches in order to reduce false positives and ensure that “probable” matches are properly investigated to determine if continuity of care is mandated due to prior history of services

TCJS will publish a final report by December 1, 2026. Read more about the rider below.

Read about our other legislative success this session at this link.