St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell unveiled ‘The Bell Plan,’ on Tuesday morning.

ST. LOUIS COUNTY – After a week in office, St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell announced more changes to how crimes are handled with the hope of making the county a safer place.

Bell unveiled ‘The Bell Plan,’ on Tuesday morning. The plan includes expanding diversion programs for nonviolent offenders with addiction and mental health issues.

“Programs of this type have been very successful in other jurisdictions that prioritize these efforts and St. Louis County can become a new leader in this area,” Bell said.

During a press conference, Bell said he plans to work with several community organizations to make the plan happen.

“By bringing in more community partners, we’re able to expand the capacity of people that we can treat because obviously everything has a cost to it – by the investment of these community partners and we hope other community partners will make, we’ll be able to treat more individuals with more individualized treatment and so this is the start of something we really think is going to make a major impact in this region,” Bell said.

The Bell Plan will work with the following organizations:

• Affinia Healthcare - Dr. Alan Freeman, CEO

• Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals -Matt Harbaugh, President, Specialty Generics

• Beyond Housing – Chris Krehmeyer, President and CEO

• Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis - Michael P. McMillan, CEO

• Better Family Life - James Clark, Community Outreach Director

• Places for People – Joe Yancey, Executive Director

“When nonviolent offenders receive treatment, they are less likely to re-offend, which can help break the cycle of escalation that so often starts with addiction or mental illness and ends in violent crime or death by drug overdose,” Bell said.

The plan also hopes to reduce the prison population, which would leave the county with more resources to deal with violent crimes that immediately impact public safety.