Programs: Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program

Bureau of Justice Assistance - Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice - Solutions for Safer Communities

Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program

Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program

Announcements:
The Council of State Governments Justice Center recently announced that Delaware, Idaho, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin have been selected to participate in the Chief Justices’ Criminal Justice/Mental Health Leadership Initiative. This is a national project that assists state supreme court chief justices in improving responses to people with mental illness involved in the justice system. The four chief justices selected will convene task forces of state leaders to examine ways to enhance how the criminal just system addresses the needs of people with mental illness.

The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center recently released two publications about crime victims: Responding to People Who Have Been Victimized by Individuals with Mental Illnesses and A Guide to the Role of Crime Victims in Mental Health Courts. These guides were written by CSG Justice Center staff, with support from the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) and are available for download at consensusproject.org/issue-areas/victims/vpmi/.

With support from BJA, the Council of State Governments Justice Center has released Improving Responses to People with Mental Illnesses: The Essential Elements of a Specialized Law Enforcement-Based Program. The Justice Center, in partnership with the Police Executive Research Forum, has identified 10 key components found in any successful law enforcement initiatives to provide better outcomes in officers’ encounters with individuals with mental illnesses. The elements can help guide individuals in communities that are interested in developing a law enforcement-based program or improving the organization and functions of an existing program.

Overview:
The Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP) was created by the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-414) in response to requests from state government officials to recommend improvements to the criminal justice system's response to people with mental illness. The purpose of the program is to increase public safety by facilitating collaboration among the criminal justice, juvenile justice, mental health treatment, and substance abuse systems to increase access to treatment for this unique group of offenders. People with mental illness are significantly represented in the segment of the population in contact with the criminal justice system. Approximately 5 percent of the U.S. population has a serious mental illness, while according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics in a 1999 report, about 16 percent of the prison or jail population has a serious mental illness. Of the 10 million people booked into U.S. jails in 1997, at least 700,000 had a serious mental illness; approximately three-quarters of those individuals had a co-occurring substance abuse disorder. For juveniles, a study completed by the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice concluded that two-thirds of detained male youth and three-quarters of detained female youth have at least one mental health disorder.

The goals of the program are to:

Protect public safety by early intervention to treatment for people with mental illness or a co-occurring disorder who become involved with the criminal or juvenile justice system. This includes strategies (to the extent practicable) to address development and learning disabilities and problems arising from a documented history of physical or sexual abuse.
Provide courts, including existing and new mental health courts, with appropriate mental health and substance abuse treatment options.
Maximize the use of diversion from prosecution and use of alternative sentences through community supervision and use of graduated sanctions, as appropriate for the client, in cases involving nonviolent offenders with mental illness.
Promote adequate training for criminal justice system personnel about mental illness and substance abuse disorders and the appropriate responses to people with such illnesses, including those with developmental and learning disabilities.
Promote adequate training for mental health and substance abuse treatment personnel about criminal offenders with mental illness or co-occurring substance abuse disorders and the appropriate response to such offenders in the criminal justice system.
Promote communication among adult or juvenile justice personnel, mental health and co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse disorder treatment personnel, and nonviolent offenders with mental illness and co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders and support services such as housing, job placement, faith-based and community services, schools, child welfare, transportation, and crime victims' organizations.
Promote communication, collaboration, and intergovernmental partnerships among municipal-, county-, and state-elected officials with respect to mentally ill offenders.

Grantee Snapshots:
FY 2006 Grantees
FY 2007 Grantees

Mental Health Court Learning Sites:
BJA has designated five mental health courts as learning sites to provide a peer support network for local and state officials interested in planning a new or improving on an existing mental health court. The five learning sites are:

Akron Municipal Mental Health Court (OH)
Bonneville County Mental Health Court (ID)
Bronx County Mental Health Court (NY)
Dougherty Superior Court (GA)
Washoe County Mental Health Court (NV)

The learning sites host site visits, hold conference calls, and respond to e-mail inquiries from people interested in starting a mental health court or improving their current program. The Council of State Governments Justice Center oversees this program for BJA. Snapshots of each of the learning sites, along with longer program descriptions, can be found at http://consensusproject.org/mhcp.

Legislation: The Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program is funded through the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004 (MIOTCRA) (Public Law 108-414).

Funding: The FY 2008 appropriation is $6.5 million.

Eligibility: Applicants are limited to states, units of local government, Indian tribes, and tribal organizations, which must apply jointly with a mental health agency.

How/When To Apply: BJA released the FY 2008 grant announcement for the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program on March 3, 2008, and applications were due May 6, 2008. All applications were received via Grants.gov. Grant award recipients will be announced prior to September 30, 2008.

Training and Technical Assistance:
The Council of State Governments (CSG), coordinator of the Criminal Justice/Mental Health Consensus Project, along with the National Association of Counties (NACo) and the Pretrial Services Resources Center (PSRC), provides technical assistance to BJA's Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program. Specifically, technical assistance is available to grantees planning, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining their Justice and Mental Health Collaborations. In addition, they provide similar types of assistance to nongrantees in the fields of criminal justice and mental health through publications and collaborative workshops and conferences. This year's technical assistance will focus on helping law enforcement, mental health courts, and court-based initiatives improve the response to people with mental illness in the criminal justice system. Technical assistance efforts will also be coordinated with the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) to provide assistance on the issue of mentally ill offenders who are incarcerated in jails, prisons, and other correctional facilities. To achieve these goals, CSG, NACo, PSRC, and NIC will make available the following forms of support:

Maintain a web site that serves as a clearinghouse of information for anyone working in the criminal justice system seeking to improve the response to people with mental illness in the justice system.
Provide onsite and offsite technical assistance to grantees and nongrantees.
Coordinate technical assistance efforts with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and its TAPA and GAINS Centers for technical assistance to provide assistance on mental health services and jail diversion strategies.
Support the Judges Leadership Initiative, which seeks to build leadership in the judiciary to effectively address the community and consumer needs of those with mental illness in the criminal justice system.
Develop and disseminate written publications on key issues related to justice and mental health collaboration. Current publications under review include: What Is a Mental Health Court?; Essential Elements of a Mental Health Court; Improving Responses to People with Mental Illnesses: Essential Elements of a Specialized Police Based Program; and Improving Responses to People with Mental Illnesses: Strategies for Overcoming Training Challenges.

The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center's Consensus Project is a national effort to help local, state, and federal policymakers and criminal justice and mental health professionals improve the response to people with mental illnesses in contact with--or at risk of contact with--the criminal justice system.

For more information on the Consensus Project and to register for the Consensus Project e-newsletter, visit http://consensusproject.org.

CSG manages the Criminal Justice/Mental Health Information Network (InfoNet), an online database that provides a comprehensive inventory of collaborative criminal justice/mental health activity across the country and serves as a platform for peer-to-peer networking. The InfoNet builds and expands on previous efforts to collect program information as a resource for policymakers, practitioners, and advocates working to improve outcomes when people with mental illnesses come into contact with the criminal justice system.

Related Information:
Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (FY 2008 Competitive Grant Announcement)
FY 2008 Frequently Asked Questions

FY 2007 Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program Grant Awards
Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (FY 2007 Competitive Grant Announcement)
FY 2007 Frequently Asked Questions

FY 2006 Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program Grant Awards
Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (FY 2006 Competitive Grant Announcement)

Related Publications:
Report to the President on Issues Raised by the Virginia Tech Tragedy
Improving Responses to People with Mental Illnesses: The Essential Elements of a Mental Health Court
A Guide to Collecting Mental Health Court Outcome Data
Navigating the Mental Health Maze
Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program Brief
Law Enforcement/Mental Health Partnership Program
The Police Response to People with Mental Illnesses (MS Word)
Police Response to People with Mental Illness: Specialized Approaches
People with Mental Illness (from DOJ's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS)
Emerging Judicial Strategies for the Mentally Ill in the Criminal Caseload: Mental Health Courts in Fort Lauderdale, Seattle, San Bernardino, and Anchorage (HTML, PDF, or ASCII)
Memphis, Tennessee, Police Department's Crisis Intervention Team (PDF or ASCII)

Other Federal and National Funding Resources:
Center for Mental Health Services Targeted Capacity Expansion Initiative for Jail Diversion Programs

Other:
The Florida Criminal Justice, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse Reinvestment Grant Program was signed into law by Florida Governor Jeb Bush on June 19, 2007. The purpose of the program is to "provide funds to counties with which they can plan, implement, or expand initiatives that increase public safety, avert increased spending on criminal justice, and improve the accessibility and effectiveness of treatment for residents who have a mental illness, substance use disorder, or co-occurring mental health and substance use disorder and who are in, or at risk of entering, the criminal justice system." The act also established a Criminal Justice, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse Technical Assistance Center at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida. The Florida Department of Children and Family Services will administer the grant program.

Contact Information:
Ruby Qazilbash
Senior Policy Advisor for Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Bureau of Justice Assistance
810 Seventh Street NW.
Washington, DC 20531
Phone: (202) 305-6982
Fax: (202) 305-2543
E-mail: Ruby.Qazilbash@usdoj.gov

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