The majority of people in prison and jail have a substance use disorder. Despite the promise demonstrated by some treatment programs for people who are incarcerated, just a fraction of the people who need services for substance abuse receive it. Connecting people incarcerated to treatment programs proven to be effective, prioritizing resources for those nearing release, and encouraging community-based aftercare will ensure better outcomes for people released from prisons and jails, and the communities to which they return.
Providing answers on relevant topics concerning Mental Health, Health and Substance Abuse topics.
The National Reentry Resource Center recently released Critical Connections—a discussion paper that identifies key questions state and local leaders should ask as part of their efforts to help people leaving prison and jail with mental health needs get community-based treatment.
This guide prepared by the National Reentry Resource Center is intended to support recipients of Second Chance Act (SCA) Reentry Program for Adults with Co-Occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Disorders grants funded by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Before the confetti is swept up in celebration of the President’s signing of the 21st Century Cures Act, let’s make sure an important takeaway isn’t lost in the fanfare: this bipartisan bill also illustrates the type of improvements to the criminal justice system everyone can get behind.
Leaders in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, recently launched a data-driven project as part of the national Stepping Up initiative, seeking to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses and co-occurring substance use disorders in the county prison.
President Barack Obama signed the 21st Century Cures Act on Tuesday, December 13, after it passed the House and Senate with bipartisan support, signaling an effort to address the nation’s challenges with mental health in the criminal justice system, among other medical priorities.
Within the wide range of initiatives the omnibus bill supports are several significant criminal justice reform measures related to the issue of mental health, including the enactment of the Comprehensive Justice and Mental Health Act and the reauthorization of the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act.
The SOAR program assists states and localities to expedite access to the Social Security Administration’s disability programs—Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)—for persons who are experiencing or at risk for homelessness and have a mental illness, co-occurring substance use disorder, or other serious medical condition.
This program provides resources to state, local, and tribal governments to establish or enhance the provision of treatment to facilitate the successful reintegration of adults returning from incarceration to their communities.
This program aims to address the opioid crisis by increasing access to treatment, reducing unmet treatment needs, and reducing opioid overdose-related deaths through the provision of prevention, treatment, and recovery activities for opioid use disorder.
This program provides resources to state, local, and tribal governments and courts to enhance drug court programs and systems—including those related to opioid substance use disorders—for people charged with or convicted of nonviolent crimes who have substance use disorders.
During the webinar, BJA staff provide an overview of the Second Chance Act, requirements of the co-occurring disorders grant program, and grant management, and NRRC staff provide an overview of the training, technical assistance, research, tools, and Planning & Implementation (P&I) Guide related to the grant.
In this webinar, panelists discuss best practices to ensure collaborative responses are maintained based on the drug of choice in a given community, effective training for agency staff is utilized, and that effective communication between community supervision and treatment providers is maintained.
In this webinar, CSG Justice Center staff explain the training and technical assistance opportunities and resources available to grantees. Staff from the Bureau of Justice Assistance will also participate and provide an overview of the post-award grant management requirements.
Grant funding often provides seed money to help agencies launch new programs. However, once the grant has expended, finding additional funds to sustain a program can be challenging. This webinar discusses how other funding streams can be leveraged, and partnerships developed, to help sustain a program.
This webinar is designed for Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program and Second Chance Act Reentry Program for Adults with Co-occurring Substance Use and Mental Disorders grantees and features speakers from three different grant programs that are utilizing MAT in jail and community-based settings for people involved in the justice system.
In this webinar, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance and The Council of State Governments Justice Center explain the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program and its application process.
This webinar was presented to Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program and Second Chance Act Co-Occurring Substance Use and Mental Disorders grantees discussed strategies for developing information sharing collaborations between criminal justice and behavioral health systems.
During this webinar, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance explain the grant program and application process and respond to questions from the field about the grant program.
This webinar discusses the best practices for screening and assessment of co-occurring substance use and mental disorders in the criminal justice system.
This webinar discusses how individuals access treatment as they reenter their communities from prisons and jails, as well as the process measures that can assist in reentry.
This report serves as a blueprint for counties to assess their existing efforts to reduce the number of people with mental illnesses in jail by considering specific questions and progress-tracking measures.
A recent pilot in Connecticut found that those who left jail with Medicaid coverage availed themselves of outpatient services, prescription medicines, and behavioral health care, often within one month of release.
The agenda charts a course for more meaningful collaborations and opportunities for strengthening policies, programs, and activities addressing mental illnesses and substance use disorders in tribal communities.
The first-ever Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health reviews what we know about substance misuse and how you can use that knowledge to address substance misuse and related consequences.
This report summarizes key points discussed at a GAO-convened forum focused on preventing illicit drug use.
This brief explores barriers to accessing substance use disorder and mental health treatment services in rural communities and the benefits of telehealth.
This publication series contains policy briefs on several Medicaid-related policies that each state may consider implementing to help bolster criminal justice reform.
This brief from the Vera Institute of Justice explores a pilot teleconferencing program that connects people to community-based services.
This report highlights the importance of an integrated, gender-responsive, public health approach to violence and trauma.
This report offers a portrait of women in jail, explores how jail can deepen the societal disadvantages they face, and provides insight into what drives women’s incarceration and ways to reverse the trend.
With about 66 percent of the inmates at the Codington County, South Dakota Regional Detention Center diagnosed as having some sort of mental illness, treating and housing those individuals quickly gets to be costly, with county jails across the nation estimated to be spending two to three times more on mentally ill persons than those without mental illness.
The Stepping Up Initiative took a big step forward with its summit last April in Washington, D.C. Now, many attendees are in mid-stride as they implement what they learned about ways to reduce the number of people with mental illness in America’s jails.
Public health officials have called the current opioid epidemic the worst drug crisis in American history, killing more than 33,000 people in 2015.
Governor John Kasich signed a bill tightening restrictions on prescription opioids and making addiction treatment easier to obtain.
“I would like to see the Reuben Engagement Center become the template for criminal justice reform throughout the entire Indianapolis and Marion County community. It’s the kind of services that are going to be offered here that every citizen of this community deserves when they find themselves having been arrested for some kind of behavioral problem, but they suffer from mental health problems, addiction or substance abuse,” said Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett at the opening of the Reuben Engagement Center.
“We’ve got to provide really good treatment in our criminal justice system and simultaneously we’ve got to advocate for people with mental illness and make sure that health care providers are giving the care they should be,” said Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane, the incoming board chairwoman.
‘With goals of protecting public safety, being transparent and fiscally responsible, reducing prison violence, providing inmates with life improving and life sustaining skills and providing employees with the knowledge needed to work in a challenging environment, 2016 was filled with many accomplishments at the facility and department level,’ said Pennsylvania Corrections Secretary John E. Wetzel.
McLennan County, Texas leaders are urging state lawmakers to approve a bill that would allow the county to have Medicaid and Social Security coverage for inmates suspended, rather than terminated, allowing their benefits to restart automatically upon release.
Tom Vilsack, the secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, cited a lack of housing as a critical driver and perpetuator of the opioid epidemic. In August, the USDA laid out a plan to finance transitional housing for people in treatment for opioid addiction in 22 states; other speakers called on federal agencies to invest in developing more affordable housing in rural communities.
Yavapai County, Arizona Sheriff Scott Mascher, long an advocate of diversion programs for people with mental health problems, said last month, “Should the jails be the de facto mental health treatment centers? I don’t think we should be.”