Some counties have already begun addressing this crisis by joining Stepping Up. Launched in May 2015 as a partnership between The Council of State Governments Justice Center, The National Association of Counties, and The American Psychiatric Association Foundation, the national initiative has rallied more than 360 counties to pass local resolutions to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in their jails. Guided by Stepping Up's  Six Questions County Leaders Need to Ask, these counties are working toward identifying how their system can improve outcomes for people entering their jails.  Read more here.

A man named Eddie threads through the mid-afternoon crowd in Cambridge, Mass. He's headed for a sandwich shop, the first stop on a tour of public bathrooms.

"I know all the bathrooms that I can and can't get high in," says Eddie, 39, pausing in front of the shop's plate glass windows, through which we can see a bathroom door.

Eddie, whose last name we're not including because he uses illegal drugs, knows which restrooms along busy Massachusetts Avenue he can enter, at what hours and for how long. Several restaurants, offices and a social service agency in this neighborhood have closed their restrooms in recent months, but not this sandwich shop.

"With these bathrooms here, you don't need a key. If it's vacant you go in. And then the staff just leaves you alone," Eddie says. "I know so many people who get high here."

At the fast food place right across the street, it's much harder to get in and out.

Eddie is homeless and works at a restaurant. Public bathrooms are one of the few places where he can find privacy to inject heroin. He says he doesn't use the drug often these days. Eddie is on methadone, which curbs his craving for heroin, so he only uses the drug occasionally to be social with friends.   Read more here .