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

Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (FY 2008 Competitive Grant Announcement)
The application perioiod is now closed.
FY 2008 Frequently Asked Questions

NEW! Improving Responses to People with Mental Illnesses: The Essential Elements of a Mental Health Court

FY 2007 Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program Grant Awards

Announcements:
Report to the President on Issues Raised by the Virginia Tech Tragedy

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.

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.

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: FY 2008 funding has not yet been determined.

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 are due May 6, 2008. All applicants must apply through Grants.gov.

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 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.

Related Information:
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:
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

DOJ's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) released the publication People with Mental Illness.

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

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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