{"id":817290,"date":"2026-08-18T04:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T04:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/817290\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T04:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T04:38:09","slug":"new-kentucky-law-aims-to-keep-people-in-mental-health-crises-out-of-jails-hospitals-local-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/817290\/","title":{"rendered":"New Kentucky law aims to keep people in mental health crises out of jails, hospitals | Local News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) \u2014\u00a0Kentucky judges now have another option when a mental health crisis results in a court case.<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers from both parties gathered in Frankfort Monday to celebrate the passage of <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.legislature.ky.gov\/record\/26rs\/hb485.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">House Bill 485<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The new law allows judges to order outpatient mental health treatment and medication for some people, rather than automatically sending them to jail or a hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Supporters said the change could help people get care while staying in their communities, instead of repeatedly cycling through local jails.<\/p>\n<p>Advocates also said having another option could help people get treatment sooner and keep them from reaching another crisis.<\/p>\n<p>The law gives judges more choices when deciding how to handle cases involving mental health.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) \u2014\u00a0Kentucky judges now have another option when a mental health crisis results in a court&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[4,346757,346760,97,346753,21693,346755,346754,346761,346758,346752,21692,2558,21689,346756,259,346759,71883,260,346762,13594,21691,21690],"class_list":["post-817290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-breaking-news","tag-court-ordered-mental-health-treatment","tag-frankfort-kentucky","tag-health","tag-house-bill-485","tag-indiana-news","tag-kentucky-courts","tag-kentucky-house-bill-485","tag-kentucky-lawmakers","tag-kentucky-mental-health-cases","tag-kentucky-mental-health-law","tag-kentucky-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-louisville-news","tag-mandatory-outpatient-treatment","tag-mental-health","tag-mental-health-and-jails","tag-mental-health-treatment","tag-mentalhealth","tag-outpatient-mental-health-care","tag-top-news","tag-wdrb","tag-wdrb-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}