Their plan is to reshape the subcommittee’s work to focus on four areas of potential state legislative and budget action. The first and biggest priority is the restructuring and financing of the mental health system, which is overseen by the state but administered locally by 39 community services boards and, in Richmond, a behavioral health authority.

“That has been the over-arching issue,” Bonnie said.

The subcommittee also will focus on developing supportive housing for people with mental illness, diverting them away from jails that are ill-equipped to treat them, and considering new ways of delivering emergency services to people in crisis.

The system relies on state-operated mental hospitals to treat mentally ill patients committed through the criminal justice system, as well as provide long-term treatment of serious mental illnesses and accept people in psychiatric crises if no private psychiatric bed can be found for them.