It is a scenario that plays out across the country every day: the mentally ill, homeless, the drug-addicted caught up in a criminal justice system that isn’t designed to help them escape the revolving door of the streets, jail and the back of ambulances. For years the criminal justice system — the jails and the courts — have been hiding some of our community’s most vulnerable out of sight.

Here are a some programs in Snohomish County aimed at finding a different path:

Everett’s Chronic Utilizer Alternative Response Team (CHART)

The goal is to provide long-term solutions for the people who are consistently being seen by police and emergency medical services and revolving in and out of jail and the courts. The team identifies people who frequently use those systems and develops alternatives. Each agency commits resources. The team is made up representatives from the Everett’s police and fire departments and city attorney’s office, the county’s Human Services and Corrections divisions and Providence Regional Medical Center Everett.

Law Enforcement Embedded Social Worker

This is a one-year pilot program that puts social workers and police officers together to assist the homeless and people living with mental illness often caught up in the criminal justice system. Social workers are embedded at the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office and the Everett Police Department. They ride along with police to assess people’s situations and create plans to assist them getting mental health or substance abuse treatment, medical services and housing. The goal is to create better coordination between law enforcement and social services.

Jail Transition Services

Snohomish County Human Services works with inmates living with mental illness and tries to coordinate their release so that they have mental health care and public assistance before they leave jail. The goal is to prevent additional incarceration or psychiatric hospital stays. The county also has hired a coordinator to sign up inmates for publicly-funded insurance so they have access to mental health and medical care.

Coordinated Entry

Law enforcement and social workers are referring people to the county’s coordinated entry program. It aims to simplify how homeless can access housing. There’s centralized screening so participants are added to a pool of people who need housing. Priority is given to those most vulnerable.

Mental Health Alternatives Program

Everett created a therapeutic court for people facing non-violent misdemeanor crimes. The majority of the participants are living with mental illness. They are required to attend regular court hearings and abide by conditions, such as attending counseling sessions or meeting with the court’s liaison, a mental health professional from Bridgeways. Participants may be required to undergo drug screening or find housing.

Sheriff’s Office of Neighborhoods

Coordinates patrols of homeless camps. Deputies make frequent contact with those living in the camps. The office is coordinating the law enforcement embedded social worker program for the county. It also partnered with Fire District 1, Snohomish County Human Services and students from the University of Washington Bothell to create a refernce guide to local social services for first responders.

Carnegie Building

Plans are under way to turn the former Carnegie Bulding in downtown Everett into a social services center and temporary housing for people released from jail for nonviolent crimes. The proposal is to build 20 bedrooms with shared living spaces on one floor. The second floor will house services for mental health, substance abuse and job training. Staff will help participants sign up for health insurance, connect them with a primary care doctor and refer them to other community services.