Advisory

SAMHSA Awards $7.2 Million for Jail Diversion Grant Programs

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Administrator Charles Curie today announced $7.2 million in new grants to divert individuals with mental illness away from the criminal justice system and into community-based mental health and substance abuse treatment services. Curie made the announcement at the Cook County Mental Health Court in Chicago which received a jail diversion grant from SAMHSA in October 2005.

“All too often individuals with mental illness, often with co-occurring substance abuse, are incarcerated instead of receiving treatment for their disorders,” Curie said. “These grants offer an alternative. By providing treatment and support services, we can avoid the unnecessary criminalization and incarceration of non-violent adult offenders with mental illness.”

The three year grants require that mental health treatment services be based on the best known practices and include case management; treatment using Assertive Community Treatment; medication management; integrated mental health and substance abuse treatment; and psychiatric and gender based trauma services. Assertive Community Treatment offers services that are customized to the individual needs of the consumer, delivered by a team of practitioners, and available 24 hours a day.

Grantees will coordinate with social service agencies to ensure that life skills training, housing placement, vocational training, job placement, and health care are available to diverted persons.

Grants were awarded in six states.

Connecticut

Connecticut Women’s Jail Diversion Program -- $400,000 in the first year and similar amounts in subsequent years to provide booking diversion services to women in Hartford with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders with a history of trauma and trauma-related psychiatric disorders. The program will build upon an existing jail diversion program for women in Hartford by providing Assertive Community Treatment, integrated mental health and substance abuse treatment, medication management, and gender-based trauma treatment using the trauma Adaptive Recovery Group Education Training mode to 180 women over the three year project.

Florida

Hillsborough TCE for Jail Diversion Program -- $396,806 in the first year and similar amounts in subsequent years to expand a program to affect and manage the care of community based, post-booking, diversion of repeat offenders with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. The Hillsboro County Public Safety Coordinating Council will conduct six months of strategic transformation planning and project evaluation and provide project specific professional development opportunities for stakeholders. Following the strategic planning phase, the project will maintain a continuing caseload of 30 consumers.

New Mexico

Southwestern New Mexico Continuum of Care -- $393,000 in the first year and similar amounts in subsequent years. This program will address the needs of persons in the rural areas of Catron, Hidalgo, Grant, and Luna counties. An established pre-booking diversion program will receive support from the proposed program to train more officers on crisis intervention methods. The new post-booking program will provide gender-sensitive, culturally appropriate services to 175 unduplicated individuals over the three-year span of the project. Ninety-five of those individuals will receive treatment using Assertive Community Treatment services.

Missouri

An Alternative to Imprisonment -- $398,605 the first year and similar amounts in subsequent years to provide post-booking jail diversion services to residents of St. Louis. The program will serve individuals that have committed misdemeanors or nonviolent felony offenses in the city of St. Louis. They will be screened and evaluated by intake personnel and referred to a mental health or co-occurring specialty court, and helped to negotiate diversion options. For those diverted, the program offers intensive case management services and linkage to other community substance abuse treatment, medication evaluation/management, and gender-based trauma treatment. Over the course of the three years project, 610 individuals will be screened and 420 individuals will be enrolled into the program.

Pennsylvania

Jail Diversion Program -- $400,000 the first year and similar amounts in subsequent years. Dauphin County will build upon its pre-booking jail diversion services to divert individuals

with severe mental illness, including those with co-occurring substance abuse disorders, to a more appropriate treatment based on evidence and practices at multiple points within the criminal justice system. The program will promote the development of a seamless interface between law enforcement and holistic recovery-based treatment. The program will promote integrated mental health and substance use treatment, psychiatric rehabilitation, and gender- based trauma services. The program will serve approximately 342 individuals over the three year program.

Texas

The South Texas Jail Diversion Program -- $400,000the first year and similar amounts in subsequent years will promote the transformation of Nueces County’s systems to improve services for justice-involved adults suffering from mental illness and addiction. The project strategy addresses pre- and post- booking diversion techniques utilizing a multidimensional crisis intervention approach that links eligible participants with an array of existing, enhanced, and expanded services. Those who are diverted will be linked to evidence- based treatment, psychiatric rehabilitation, medication management and access, and gender-based trauma services. The pre-booking program will train 100 law enforcement officers per year, and the post-booking program will divert 80 individuals per year from the criminal justice system.

SAMHSA, is a public health agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency is responsible for improving the accountability, capacity and effectiveness of the nation’s substance abuse prevention, addictions, treatment, and mental health services delivery system.

SAMHSA is An Agency of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Service