LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Fayette Mental Health Court saved the community an estimated $3.17 million in 2025 on a local investment of $270,000 — a return of more than 1,000 percent — while graduating a record 25 participants and reaching its highest-ever caseload, program leaders told a Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council committee Tuesday.
The presentation to the Social Services and Public Safety Committee also carried an implicit pitch for growth: the presiding judge told council members there is no reason Fayette County couldn’t support a second mental health court, given that roughly 20 percent of the detention center population — an estimated 160 or more people — has a serious mental illness, far outstripping the court’s current capacity of about 40 to 50 participants.
Clinical Director Connie Milligan told the committee that half the program’s participants enter it unhoused, and that the true number living in unstable situations is higher. After a year, 97 percent achieve stable housing — a figure she called remarkable given that participants carry poverty rates six times greater than Fayette County as a whole, along with criminal charges that make finding a landlord difficult. Ninety percent arrive with co-occurring substance use disorders, and 60 percent maintain complete sobriety after a year in the program, triple the national average of 20 percent cited by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
The court’s overall recidivism rate stands at 17 percent, compared with the roughly 40 percent rate for people leaving jail and prison statewide, Milligan said. Alumni who continue in the program’s twice-weekly aftercare groups see that number fall to 7 percent.
The savings figures are driven largely by avoided incarceration. Milligan reported that the court’s 25 graduates in 2025 diverted 25,450 days of jail time at $115 per day, saving the Fayette County Detention Center nearly $2.93 million. An additional $240,000 in law enforcement savings brought the total to roughly $3.17 million against the program’s $270,000 annual budget — a 1,073 percent return on investment, according to the presentation materials.
Judge John Lindsay Tackett, who presides over the court, emphasized that the program also provides mental health evaluations for the broader court system — 121 in 2025 and 623 since the program’s inception — giving judges and attorneys timely clinical guidance even for defendants who don’t qualify for the diversion court. Without those assessments, he said, defendants wait in jail for evaluations from Eastern State Hospital or the Kentucky Correctional Psychiatric Center, facilities with persistent bottlenecks. He compared the evaluations to a theme-park fast pass, telling council members that funding the court has effectively issued 623 of them.
Tackett said conversations about establishing a second mental health court are already underway with the Administrative Office of the Courts, whose director, Zach Ramsey, attended Tuesday’s meeting in a show of support. Willing judges exist, Tackett said, but the expansion would require funding a second court coordinator and securing commitments from partner agencies including the jail, prosecutors, defense attorneys, Eastern State Hospital, and the behavioral health provider New Vista. While the expansion was not included in this year’s budget, Tackett told the committee it deserved consideration. “It stinks to tell people that we’re at capacity,” he said.
Council members offered strong praise. Vice Mayor Dan Wu called the program’s results “very, very apparent” and said programs that deliver measurable returns will always find support from the council. Council Member Tyler Morton thanked the team for its recovery-focused approach, saying the outcomes show that investing in mental health services builds safer communities and saves lives. Chair Jennifer Reynolds said the program has her and her colleagues’ support and that she looks forward to it serving even more people.
The committee also approved the summary of its January 13 meeting, which included a minor language cleanup by the Law Department removing an unnecessary reference to the International Residential Code in a recently passed carbon monoxide detection ordinance. The correction was described as non-material.
Reynolds briefly reviewed the committee’s standing referral list, which includes more than two dozen pending items ranging from eviction diversion and right-to-counsel legislation to a strategic growth plan for the fire department and an animal care and control ordinance update. She urged members whose items are not yet scheduled to coordinate with staff. No other business was raised, and the meeting adjourned.
The committee’s next scheduled meeting is March 17.
