Local program helps arrested people with mental illness July 23, 2021 5:51 pm Working to change jail's mental health status HOUSTON – A local program aims to divert people with mental illness from the Harris County jail to a center for mental health treatment. “I was told that he had a panic disorder. He couldn’t be alone,” said former Harris County Judge Ed Emmett. Emmett’s father lived with mental illness his entire life. “If he looked less than a mid-level oil company employee, he would’ve been arrested for vagrancy. He would’ve been one of those people in the jail,” Emmett said.