William Brangham:

But first, each year, an estimated two million people suffering from mental illness are booked into county jails.

Police, emergency responders and courts are all looking for better ways to handle these individuals, in some cases by diverting them from the criminal justice system in the first place.

John Yang visited one such effort in Kansas City, Missouri, part of our ongoing series on broken justice.

This story was done in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.