JMHCP Success Story: Ohio Grant Program Helps Participant Get Clean and Avoid Crime

The Council of State Governments Justice Center — which coordinates the Criminal Justice / Mental Health Consensus Project — has been collecting stories about individuals whose lives have improved as a result of their involvement in a Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP)-funded grant program. This story is about a man enrolled in the Auglaize County (OH) Transition / Mental Health (ACT/MH) Program, the recipient of a 2010 JMHCP Planning and Implementation grant. We will publish one story a month (this is the first story published). If you would like to provide a story about a successful client in your JMHCP-funded program, please contact Stephanie Joson of the CSG Justice Center.

All names and other individually identifying details have been changed to preserve confidentiality.

Grant Program: Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program
Grantee Type: Planning and Implementation
State: Ohio
Grantee: Auglaize County
Program Name: Auglaize County Transition/Mental Health (ACT/MH) Program

Danny has been arrested over a dozen times, and a quarter of his forty years have been spent behind bars. His first arrest was at age eight, his first detention when he was a little over 11 years old. He spent most of his teenage years locked up. His rap sheet reads like a laundry list: breaking and entering, assaulting a police officer, vandalism, eluding police officers (in a high-speed chase), disorderly conduct, and felonious and aggravated assault. He has a history of disruptive and rule-breaking behavior in prison. A former parole officer considers him the “most dangerous offender I ever supervised.”

He also has serious mental illness. First diagnosed as a teenager, his diagnoses include bipolar disorder, borderline paranoid schizophrenia, intermittent explosive disorder, and antisocial disorder. Though he’s been prescribed medication, he’s never really stayed on it for any period; instead, he’s self-medicated with both alcohol and pot. Because of his mental illness, he’s never been able to live in one place or hold a job for a long time. He’s been in-and-out of halfway houses and lived with family members who invariably lose patience with him and kick him out.

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