Bay Area

Alameda County Receives Grant to Help Mentally Struggling Individuals in the Justice System

Alameda County has received an $8.25 million grant from the California Department of State Hospitals (DSH) to expand residential care options for up to 88 people who have been found incompetent to stand trial after being charged with felony offenses. The grant will support the Alameda County Behavioral Health Department (ACBHD) in its mission to ensure that those in the criminal justice system suffering from serious mental illness receive behavioral health services in non-prison settings.

Published

2 years ago

July 8, 2024

Oakland Post

John George Psychiatric Hospital. Photo: Alameda Health System.

By Magaly Muñoz

The grant will support the Alameda County Behavioral Health Department (ACBHD) in its mission to ensure that those in the criminal justice system suffering from serious mental illness receive behavioral health services in non-prison settings.

Juan Taizan, Director of Forensic Diversion and Re-Entry Services, said that consideration for eligibility for these mental health services is determined by the judge, the district attorney and the public defender on the case. Once a person is accepted, the care is tailored to each individual’s mental capacity.

“A clinical team will meet with the client, assess for medication needs, assess for individual therapeutic needs, and then really work with them around education, and competency education in particular, to help them understand their role in the court process,” Taizan said.

How a court will proceed with an individual’s case is based on a psychiatrist’s recommendation regarding their progress in treatment or whether they will need additional mental health services.

James Wagner, Deputy Director of ACBHD, said the severity of the person’s crime does determine eligibility. The individual could have committed a minor crime, like theft, or a major crime where someone was hurt, but the determination comes from whether the person is stable and mentally competent to endure and participate in a trial. They also are required to have received a felony charge or are likely to receive one.

Mental health facilities already exist in the county, but facilities that cater to those going through the justice system are now in the process of being built and resourced through the multi-million dollar grant.

The treatment in these facilities will vary on a case-by-case basis, but they’ll likely mimic locked institutions or involuntary treatment facilities because most of the clients are not yet ready to be reintegrated into the community.

Wagner said treatment plans for the individuals will include participation with a social worker, therapist or case manager on developing their goals. They’ll also attend rehab classes, be allowed socialization with other patients, receive individual counseling, and participate in group meals as a collective.

Taizan emphasized the need to have these treatment facilities available to allow for individuals to grow and be given the resources to help with their mental health difficulties in a less restrictive environment than incarceration.

“This funding really allows us to get these specific clients who would otherwise be waiting in jail for a state hospital bed to open up. It allows us to divert them to a treatment facility, in their community, where they can be best served, and with a goal of getting the treatment they need and being restored to competency,” Taizan said.

Imprisonment has historically been used as a solution to keep mentally ill individuals off the streets as opposed to giving them fair health treatment. Over 40% of people in jails and prisons have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.

Shannon Scully, Director of Justice Policy and Initiatives for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), told the Post that most states and local governments are grappling with how to go from using incarceration as a solution to making more beds available for treatment.

Scully said that a lot of the crimes that people who are experiencing mental health crises are petty crimes or homelessness, which many cities across the country have criminalized, but have largely affected vulnerable communities.

She added that if national and local municipalities focused more on investing in social programs centered around housing, food accessibility and affordable health care, along with prioritizing treatment with voluntary therapy and medication, we could avoid the mass incarceration of these mentally ill individuals.

“What we want to see is a mental health response when you know there’s behaviors happening in our community from people with mental health conditions that might be concerning to us, and we, as the public, identify this as a mental health issue and not as a public safety or crime issue,” Scully said.

Neither Taizan nor Wagner could provide a timeline for procuring the necessary beds for the treatment facilities, but the county has until 2028 to spend the funding.

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Activism

Diabetes in Black California: Turning the Tide from Crisis to Control

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, nearly 17.9% of Black adults in California have been diagnosed with diabetes — above the national Black adult average of 16.8%, and nearly five points higher than California’s overall adult rate of 12.6% across all races. California ranks 24th out of 39 states with available data for Black adult diabetes rates.

Published

4 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

Dr. Khadijah Lang is a family physician with a clinic in Los Angeles who specializes in several family medical practices, including prenatal care. Lang believes in family medicine. She says it is important to treat all members of a family. Thursday, June 5, 2026. Photo by Solomon O. Smith/California Black Media.

By Charlene Muhammad, California Black Media

Crystal Lambert knew something was terribly wrong with her three-year-old granddaughter as she sped down the street trying to get her to the hospital.

“I thought she got a hold of some poison,” Lambert recalled.

Doctors found Lambert’s granddaughter had a blood sugar level over 800, diagnosing her with Diabetic Ketoacidosis(DKA), a state in which the body, starved of insulin, begins to shut down.

Lambert said she was born with a pancreas that was not fully functioning — it lacked the specialized cells required to produce insulin.

Her granddaughter survived and is five years old today. Now, she gives herself insulin shots, asks endless questions about her condition, and runs like the spirited child she is. But the terror of that night transformed Lambert — and ultimately inspired her to launch the We Fight Back Organization, a mobile health and food access initiative serving underserved communities across California. Lambert is the executive director.

The Crisis by the Numbers

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, nearly 17.9% of Black adults in California have been diagnosed with diabetes — above the national Black adult average of 16.8%, and nearly five points higher than California’s overall adult rate of 12.6% across all races. California ranks 24th out of 39 states with available data for Black adult diabetes rates.

Nationally, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Black Americans were 24% more likely than the overall U.S. population to have diabetes in 2024. They also died from diabetes 78% more often than the general population in 2022. Black Americans are also more than twice as likely as the overall population to develop kidney failure caused by diabetes.

According to the California Health Care Foundation’s 2024 Health Disparities Almanac, Black Californians have the shortest life expectancy in the state at just 74.6 years — due in part to chronic conditions like diabetes and its devastating complications.

Leon Rock, co-founder of the African American Diabetes Association, believes statistics, though revealing, only tell part of the story.

“There are a whole bunch of Black folks that don’t tell you that they have diabetes — or don’t know,” he said.

And the disease itself, Rock is careful to note, is not what kills. “They die from the complications. That’s heart attack, that’s stroke, that’s amputations of legs, of feet. Going blind. All those complications are inherent in a system that has impacted Black folks with diabetes in California and across America.”

Crystal Lambert, creator and executive director of We Fight Back. She started the organization out of a need to learn more about diabetes on behalf of her granddaughter. Now she is looking to spread the impact of her organization to the valley. Friday, June 6, 2026. Photo by Solomon O. Smith/California Black Media.

Crystal Lambert, creator and executive director of the We Fight Back Organization, started out of a need to learn more about diabetes on behalf of her granddaughter. Now she is looking to spread her organization to the valley, on Friday, June 6, 2026 Photo by Solomon O. Smith/ California Black Media

An Information Gap Fuels the Crisis

For Rock, part of the solution is diagnosis. He says the medical and public health systems are failing Black Californians by the absence of information designed for them.

“That is the bottom line. We need good information. Information that is culturally specific,” said Rock.

Telling people to eat healthy or exercise, he added, falls short when culturally specific alternatives are not provided, and when many residents of urban communities do not feel safe exercising in some neighborhoods – or outside at night.

Dr. Khadijah Lang, a family medicine physician and president of the Golden State Medical Association, agrees that the roots of the crisis run deeper than individual behavior — and blaming patients misses the point.

“We are not genetically predisposed to diabetes,” Lang said. “But the system under which we live increases the likelihood that we will develop it.”

What the Body Needs — What Communities Are Denied

Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90 to 95% of all diabetes cases, according to the CDC, develops when the body can no longer use insulin effectively to regulate blood sugar. Left unmanaged, it damages nerves, kidneys, eyes, and the cardiovascular system. The hemoglobin A1C test is a blood draw that reveals how the body has processed sugar over the previous three months — not just at the moment of the test. It is the standard tool for both diagnosis and ongoing monitoring.

That distinction matters, Lang emphasized, because patients cannot manipulate three months of blood sugar history the way they might fast for a day before a single blood draw.

“The pill is not meant to undo or control a sugar level that’s being constantly stressed,” Lang said. “It’s meant to work in conjunction with a low-carbohydrate diet and exercise.” She recommended at minimum 30 minutes of physical activity five days a week — breakable into 10-minute sessions for those who need it.

Lang stressed that education must be delivered in language people recognize and can relate to. The goal is to inform them of the choices that serve their health best, she said.

But for many Black Californians, even those informed choices remain out of reach, Lambert said.

“They need access to healthy foods and medication, too” she said.

California has made some critical policy advances. The state has expanded access to the Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM), which has transformed diabetes care for state residents. Assembly Bill 365, introduced in 2024, proposed requiring Medi-Cal to cover the costs of CGM and other related medical equipment but it failed in the State Senate. Since then, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) reports that the core Medi-Cal CGM benefit now available to eligible patients was solidified through previous budget actions and pharmacy policy updates.

These measures, while meaningful, have not closed the gap for the communities most at risk, according to advocates.

Control Through Community

Health care advocates conclude that the solution must be communal, culturally grounded, and sustained — not a fad, not a celebrity moment, not a single clinic visit. For example, observed Lang, lifestyle shaped by shared values and collective accountability can move the needle where individual prescriptions have not.

Rock is building infrastructure to match the urgency, establishing local chapters of the African American Diabetes Association across the country, with California next.

“We have to do for self, period,” he said. “Health is wealth. We have to eat to live.”

And Lambert, whose granddaughter unknowingly started all of this for her, keeps showing up.

“Diabetes advocacy is about dignity, education, prevention, and hope,” she said.

Video: Diabetes Disparity Exposed in California

This article is supported by the California Health Care Foundation

(CHCF). Visit www.chcf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

4 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

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Arts and Culture

Prescott Circus Theatre Presents Free Summer Performance Series

Now in its 41st year, the Prescott Circus Theatre is a nationally recognized performing arts education program for Oakland youth. The circus offers safe environments that challenge Oakland youth, through circus arts training, to develop the skills and confidence to thrive on stage, in school, and in life.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

Prescott Circus showcase pathways pyramid. Photo courtesy of Prescott Circus.

By Post Staff

The Prescott Circus, Oakland’s longest-running youth circus, is returning this summer with its free shows. Join the Prescott Circus’s young stars as they share their joys and talents through stilt-dancing, tumbling, juggling, and more.

At the heart of this one-hour show, which demonstrates teamwork, pride, and joy, are Oakland Unified School District students ages 8 – 17 from more than 10 different schools

This is accomplished through no-cost school and community programs for more than 300 Oakland youth each year. Performing company members from Prescott, where the program began, perform and make appearances at as many as 40 Bay Area events each year.

The summer program is funded in part by Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, California Arts Council, Port of Oakland, and the West Davis & Bergard Foundation.

Performances will be held Tuesday, July 14, 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. (ASL interpreted) and Wednesday, July 15, 11 a.m., at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. For free reservations go to

https://PrescottCircusSummerShows.eventbrite.com

For group reservations for camps, childcare centers, senior centers, go to www.prescottcircus.org

A community show will be held Saturday, July 18, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., at DeFremery Park,1651 Adeline St., Oakland.