State officials are urging expansion of a Harris County pilot program designed to keep the mentally ill from cycling in and out of local jails.

In a December report to legislators, state Health and Human Services officials concluded the program had connected many participants with housing opportunities and mental-health and substance-abuse treatment, significantly reducing the amount of time offenders were booked into jail and stayed there.

But the program that began in August 2014also faced significant challenges in engaging and retaining individuals who face severe mental illness such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

The report ultimately recommended expansion of elements of the program in counties across the state, including requiring some local mental-health authorities to develop diversion strategic plans.

"It took a while to understand how to help these individuals," said state Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, who sponsored the bill to start the program. "I would say that it's still a work in progress. But I think the pilot has shown that this can work and it makes sense."

Huffman filed a bill in December that would provide funding for programs similar to the Harris County pilot programin the state's 10 largest counties.

Criminal justice reform and mental health have become focal points at the state and local level. There is a growing recognition that locking up those who commit crimes such as trespassing, loitering and vandalism - often a result of mental illness or a substance-abuse disorder - not only fails to further prevent such crime or improve health, but it wastes taxpayer money on running crowded jails.

"I do think that ultimately, morally, we need to take care of these folks, because many of them can't take care of themselves," Huffman said.

The Harris County jail, one of the biggest in the country, has also been called the biggest mental-health institution in the state. More than a quarter of its 9,000-plus inmates have some sort of mental illness.

The pilot diversion program is one of a series of efforts to reform the county's criminal justice system. Local officials, assisted by a $2 million grant from the The John D. and Catherine T. Mac-Arthur Foundation, have pledged to find innovative ways to reduce jail overcrowding and racial disparities in the system.

Incoming District Attorney Kim Ogg, Sheriff Ed Gonzales and Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis, three Democrats elected in November, all campaigned on criminal justice reform.

Regenia Hicks, who was tapped to lead the diversion program in 2013 when it was first launched, said itwill continue with a more-than-$3 million commitment from the county. It's currently slated to continue until late 2017.

For years, Texas lagged behind other states in public funding for mental-health services. In 2013, lawmakers began changing course, investing millions in substance-abuse treatment, efforts to eliminate waiting lists for mental-health services and creating the pilot in Harris County.

Since then, the state and the county have contributed roughly $4 million apiece per year for the diversion program, county budget officials said.

Through jail-booking, health and other data, officials identified inmates who had been booked into the jail at least three times in the last four years and also had a severe mental illness or substance-abuse disorder. Case managers contacted those inmates, offering mental-health treatment, counseling, housing and other services.

Of 1,715 people identified as eligible for the program, 554 accepted case management and services, according to the December report.

The average participant was a single, African-American male who had bipolar disorder and a substance-abuse diagnosis.

The report sampled 203 of those, to compare outcomes before and after their enrollment in the program. It found that, on average, the inmates were booked 2.09 times in the two years prior to enrollment, a number that dropped to 1.29 in the two years of enrollment.

The same analysis estimated that the group overallspent 3,836 fewer days in jail after their enrollment.

Overall, the program cost roughly $910,000 for the 203-person sample, and saved more than $1.8 million, resulting in almost $950,000 in net savings, according to the report.

Yet there were also significant challenges, the report states. The difference between the number eligible and those actually enrolled - 1,715 and 554 - reflects a population "difficult to engage and retain in service," according to the report.

Local officials were frustrated at having to direct their focus to the most severe cases as prescribed by law, when they were unable to help others who may not havecycled through jail three times in two years, but had been in and out on a different time scale.

"We might have found some people who would have been open earlier (to) taking that intervention and turning things around," Hicks said.