ReRespond - About Us
strategies to reduce mass incarceration through healthcare and housing innovations
Jesse Benet, MA,
LMHC in Washington state,
LPC in Oregon.
ReRespond Principal & Owner
Jesse a white, queer, trans person committed to social change and has been living in the pacific northwest for the past 25 years (most recently in Portland, OR) with his dog, Nova. Currently (April – August 2024), Jesse is consulting for the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National GAINS Center for Behavioral Health and Justice Transformation. Jesse is serving as a lead facilitator for the GAINS Center’s Trauma Informed Treatment Courts learning collaborative, supporting three jurisdictions nationally.
In spring 2023-early 2034, Jesse returned in a consulting role to Purpose. Dignity. Action. (PDA) to develop a model of care and support overall leadership and program development for the CoLEAD program. Jesse was the original architect of the CoLEAD program design and JustCARE approach, along with other PDA leaders, in March 2020, while he served as Deputy Director and then Co-Executive Director/Programs at PDA. PDA is the originator of the LEAD jail diversion model that has proliferated internationally.
One of Jesse’s signature accomplishments was co-leading the King County Familiar Faces Initiative (2013 to 2018), a health and human services transformation strategy focused on individuals with behavioral health conditions, often living in extreme poverty and experiencing homelessness, who are cycling through local jails. Under Jesse’s leadership the King County Familiar Faces Initiative was awarded the National Association of Counties 2017 Achievement Award; New Models of Justice: The Familiar Faces Initiative.
Jesse completed an Master of Arts (MA) degree in Psychology in 2002 at Humboldt State University and is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) Washington state and a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Oregon.
PORTFOLIO
ReRespond's Jesse Benet has subject matter knowledge, experience and proven innovations in these key areas
Legal Competency Populations | Forensic Assertive Community Treatment | Harm reduction based/infused programming | Person-directed care and program design | Trans justice | Leadership and staff development |
Grant solicitation and response support | Behavioral health best-practice program design | Addressing health and resources rather than punishment | Jail diversion for competency populations (unable to assist in own defense) | Case management models of care based Housing first approaches | Whole person care healthcare reform |
Medicaid managed-care approaches for criminal legal system involved | Prosecutorial diversion programs (Intercept 1, 2) | Local government approaches to reducing jail use | Housing first approaches to interim/shelter as jail diversion or step-down | Problem-solving courts & trauma-responsive best practice for related programing | Jail reentry best practices |
Optimal government role in ending mass incarceration | Political landscape assessment for systems change | Non-profit organizational change centering equity | Ensuring lived experience in program design and operation without tokening | Human-centered approaches to Jail ‘high utilizers/super utilizers’ | Working with media in political and difficult systems change contexts |
Sampling of presentations by Jesse
Jesse has presented at numerous national conferences, in front of elected officials including city and county councils, mayors, county executives, judges, prosecutors, behavioral health providers, managed care organizations, and has guest lectured at the University of Washington schools of social work and law.
Select Presentations of Note
Presentation to the Oregon State Legislature Joint Ways & Means and Human Services Subcommittee
(January 2023)
Behavioral Health Residential Funding Update on HB 5202 and HB 5024)
Multiple Briefings to the Seattle City Council and to the Council Public Safety Committee
(June 2021, May 2020, September 2020)
Adapting LEAD for the COVID-19 crisis & beyond to test new models of care paired with hotel-based temporary housing.
Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Program (COAP) National Forum: United We Stand (March 2020)
Bureau of Justice Assistance Supports: Responding to America’s Opioid Crisis
Refining ‘Diversion’: Systemic Responses to Illicit Drug Use, LEAD National Support Bureau and Seattle/King County LEAD
Guest Lecturer, Univ of Washington School of Law, Mental Health and the Law/Professor Chris Carney, May 2019
System Intersections: A Closer Look at Behavioral Health and Criminal Justice in King County
Briefing for King County Metropolitan Council, (August 2018)
Overview of the Trueblood Lawsuit and Related Behavioral Health Services in King County
National Association of Forensic Social Workers Conference (June 2016)
The Familiar Faces Initiative: Social Justice and Collective Impact for Health and Human Services Transformation
Intermountain Mental Health Court Conference (June 2011)
New Models of Community-based Services for Mental Health Court Populations
The National GAINS Center National Conference (March 2010)
Competency Court Linkages to New Models of Community Based Mental Health Treatment