Meet the Criminal Justice-Mental Health Learning Sites

Hosted by The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) 

In this webinar, the CSG Justice Center and BJA will launch the new Criminal Justice-Mental Health Learning Sites. Jurisdictions across the country are seeking resources to strengthen their criminal justice programming to respond to people with behavioral health needs. The Criminal Justice-Mental Health Learning Site program was launched in 2023 as a peer-to-peer opportunity for agencies and jurisdictions to learn directly from programs that have experienced success using evidence-based practices to improve these responses. Together with the Law Enforcement-Mental Health Learning Sites, these sites offer strategies from crisis response through courts, jail, reentry, and community supervision. The 10 programs span the U.S. and offer free assistance on ways to provide appropriate clinical treatment to participants, effectively use data to demonstrate a program’s outcomes, successfully engage with communities, and more. The learning sites are responsible for facilitating collaboration and knowledge exchange, fostering innovation, and serving as mentors for other agencies that are passionate about criminal justice and behavioral health reform as part of the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program. 

This 45-minute webinar will feature an overview of the learning sites, including a brief summary of each site with interactive graphics and pictures, and short presentations from several of the selected learning sites highlighting their programs. The webinar will also show participants the new learning site website and how they can request support from the sites. 

Speakers: 

• Katie Herman, Senior Policy Analyst, Behavioral Health, CSG Justice Center  
• Brooke Mount, Senior Policy Advisor, Behavioral Health and Justice Systems, BJA 
• Teresa Fuller, Justice Services Administrator, Pinal County Arizona’s Attorney’s Office, Adult Diversion Program (TBC) 
• Robert Kingham and Laura Williamson, The Downtown Austin Community Court (TBC) 
• Eric Olson, Program Coordinator, Bonneville (ID) Mental Health Court (TBC) 
• Dr. Patricia Parham, Mental Health Clinical Supervisor for Community Corrections, Virginia Department of Corrections Community Mental Health Program (TBC) 
• Dr. Rain Carei and Dr. Lauren Brodie, Psychologists, Washington State Corrections Center for Women (TBC)