LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Lubbock County stakeholders are exploring whether a formal mental health diversion program could keep qualifying offenders out of jail and get them into treatment, according to officials and advocates who spoke with KCBD’s Investigates Team.
Other Texas counties have developed Assisted Outpatient Treatment programs — known as AOT programs— in which qualifying individuals receive mental health services overseen by a civil court judge instead of moving through the criminal justice system. Lubbock does not currently have such a program.
A personal connection to the issue
Brian Shannon, a law professor at Texas Tech, a member of the Texas Judicial Commission on Mental Health, and a board member at StarCare Specialty Health System, said the issue is personal to him.
“My younger brother, when he was a senior in college, unfortunately had his first bout with a psychiatric illness. Like many, he was 22, often strikes individuals, late teens, early 20s,” Shannon said.
Shannon said his brother did not recognize that anything was wrong — a condition called anosognosia.
“It is a common symptom of individuals who have bipolar or schizophrenia disorder. It literally means a lack of insight. If you hurt your arm, you hurt your leg, your brain’s going to tell you, my arm hurts, my leg hurts. But now the very organ of the body that would normally give you those signals is the one that is having problems. Without treatment, without medication, there is this lack of insight, and so it makes it difficult for the person to get help,” Shannon said.
Shannon’s family filed for court-ordered mental health services. After four civil commitment proceedings and a hospital stay, his brother received medication and stabilized.
“They got him on a medicine that was the right one for him. So, the rest of his life, he took his meds, led a good life, an independent life,” Shannon said.
New state law expands detention criteria
The Texas Judicial Commission on Mental Health pushed for a new state law during the last legislative session. Senate Bill 1164 took effect last September. It expands when officers can detain someone for a mental health emergency without a warrant.
“The criteria had always been a reasonable cause to believe the person has a mental illness. Are they a danger to self or others? Are they deteriorating without intervention? This adds a third possible prong, if you will, of that test in terms of, do they recognize the need for treatment to address their symptoms. And those combined would allow an officer to take the person,” Shannon said.
Shannon said the goal is for more people who need help to now meet that criteria and receive a medical assessment.
Broad local support for an AOT program
Shannon pointed to a successful AOT program overseen by a judge in Bexar County.
“He brings the whole team in, and he’ll ask some basic questions like, ‘How are you doing this week? Did you take your meds? Did you go to your appointment? Anything I should know?’ And he said, just with that judicial involvement, bringing the people together, they reduce their hospital bed days significantly, more than halved them, and have better outcomes for the people,” Shannon said.
Lubbock County Assistant District Attorney Marlise Boyles said a formal program would make a difference locally.
“There are some defendants that we see on multiple occasions that if we were able to provide them with the resources and help early on, we could divert possible future criminal action, and then it wouldn’t be a strain on our jail and detention center,” Boyles said.
Chief Defender Rusty Gunter of the Private Defender’s Office said the benefits would extend across the justice system.
“It’s going to reduce the number of people on the competency docket. It’s going to reduce the number of mental health people in the jail who are not competent. And it’s going to help people who could be contributing members of society without having to take more draconian measures,” Gunter said.
Judge ready to lead pre-adjudication model
County Court at Law Number 3 Judge Benjamin Webb said he is prepared to oversee a program, specifically a pre-adjudication AOT model targeting people after arrest but before their case is resolved.
“The idea being, without their mental illness, they’re probably not going to be breaking the law, and finding themselves involved in the criminal justice system,” Webb said.
Webb said the model offers a direct incentive for participants.
“I feel like this specifically, everybody recognizes the problem, and that’s one reason I prefer the pre-adjudication model, is because there’s an incentive and a benefit to the person who can comply and progress through the program. At the end, the carrot is, you can have your criminal case dismissed and avoid not only potential jail time, but any of the collateral consequences that go along with criminal convictions,” Webb said.
For Lubbock stakeholders, the question now is how to secure the funding and support needed to launch a program.
Our investigation into the Mental Health Crisis continues.
In our next report, we’ll hear from someone who graduated from the Bexar County AOT program — and what that experience meant for his life.
We’ll also talk to a senior staff attorney with the Texas Judicial Commission on Mental Health, who helps counties build these programs and secure state funding.
More from the Mental Health Crisis series
Copyright 2026 KCBD. All rights reserved.