Suzanne Wenzel is the Richard M. and Ann L. Thor Professor in Urban Social Development at the USC School of Social Work.

A sprawling metropolis of nearly 10 million people, Los Angeles County has the unenviable distinction of being home to the largest jail system in the United States, housing an inmate population of approximately 19,000 on any given day.

As is the case across the U.S. — where the penal population now stands at 2.2 million — overcrowding in Los Angeles County jails continues to be a significant and chronic challenge, as is the delivery of social and rehabilitative services to inmates needing help. Exacerbating the problem is the fact that a significant number of Los Angeles County jail inmates suffer from mental illness.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will consider setting aside $20 million to develop strategies and programs to divert mentally ill criminal defendants from county jails. This amounts to less than one percent of the county’s $2 billion allocated for jail construction and modernization.

Putting more resources behind this idea makes both humanitarian and economic sense. Why? Because diversion programs for the mentally ill have been shown to work.

Read more in the Los Angeles Daily News.