Last year, Massachusetts passed legislation representing the most significant changes to the state’s criminal justice system in decades. This legislation took concrete steps to incentivize good behavior in prison, divert people to treatment and programming as an alternative to incarceration, and strengthen community supervision.
Before these units existed, people experiencing a mental health crisis who came into contact with police were often taken to jail, which caused crowding in county jails that are simply not equipped to provide the kind of care and treatment that crisis stabilization units can.
“We have just finished the first module of the course and can see the commitment and determination mounting as the women in our class advance through each session,” said Deborah Simmons, founder of The Reentry Initiative, which is delivering CBI-CA to participants in the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility in Colorado.
“Stepping Up was born out of conversations with community leaders, law enforcement officials, and behavioral health specialists, who told us that the number of people with mental illnesses coming into their jails was a top challenge for them,” said Megan Quattlebaum, director of the CSG Justice Center.
This year’s summit will offer workshops on an array of topics, such as how to make programmatic changes based on research and data, collective impact in the mentoring field, and mentoring youth who have mental illnesses.
Since 1988, this annual conference has been a leader in promoting the development of the research base essential to improved service systems for children and youth with mental health challenges and their families, including youth involved in the juvenile justice system.
![[Apply Now] Length of Stay Policy Academy](https://csgjusticecenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/cjjrSquare-136x130.png)
Jurisdictions are invited to apply for this unique training and technical assistance opportunity to use data-driven and research-informed approaches to examine and address factors contributing to length of stay for youth in post-adjudication placement and strengthen policies and practices affecting length of stay for youth.
In this webinar, presenters discuss six questions that law enforcement executives should consider when developing or enhancing Police-Mental Health Collaborations in their jurisdiction and share practical approaches that have been implemented in the field.
This webinar highlights two jurisdictions—the State of Oklahoma and Douglas County, Nebraska—and explains how they used Collaborative Comprehensive Case Plans to enhance their case planning processes and promote recovery, successful diversion from the criminal justice system to treatment, or reentry to the community among their participants.
This webinar focusses on the programming developed specifically for veterans in two jurisdictions—the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office in Massachusetts and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department in California—and explains how these jurisdictions developed partnerships with their Veterans Affairs resources and other entities in their criminal justice systems.
In this webinar, representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance and the National Reentry Resource Center review the FY19 Improving Reentry for Adults with Co-occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Illness application process.
In this webinar, representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance and The Council of State Governments Justice Center review the FY2019 Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program application process.
This webinar provides an overview of the intersection of mental illness and the criminal justice system; describes factors contributing to the need for cultural competency as it relates to people in the criminal justice system who have mental illnesses; identifies strategies and best practices that judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys can employ when working with people of diverse backgrounds who have mental illnesses.
In this webinar, CSG Justice Center staff explain the training and technical assistance opportunities and resources available to FY18 JMHCP grantees.
In this webinar, CSG Justice Center staff explain the training and technical assistance opportunities and resources available to grantees, and staff from the Bureau of Justice Assistance provide an overview of the post-award grant management requirements.
Featuring Becki Ney of the National Resource Center on Justice-Involved Women, this webinar covers system-level strategies to maximize outcomes for women in the criminal justice system and ensure the sustainability of gender-responsive services.
In this webinar, representatives from the NRRC, along with staff from BJA, provide an overview of the Second Chance Act’s Reentry for Adults with Co-Occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Illness (CSAMI) grant program and explain the training and technical assistance opportunities that are available to grantees, including the Planning & Implementation Guide, and other resources available to grantees.
This brief applies key elements of Olmstead v. L.C. law to the challenge of reducing the vastly disproportionate number of people with mental illnesses in the U.S. criminal justice system.
This publication offers a comprehensive guide for communities on best practices for starting and sustaining CIT programs.
This report explores how ending mass incarceration and repairing its extensive collateral consequences should begin by focusing on police work at the front end of the system.
The report examines how repeat arrests should be addressed through expanding access to social services; reducing the number of arrests; and creating pre-arrest diversion programs to address the misuse of jails.
This manual provides a starting place for jurisdictions looking to use data to better understand and improve the outcomes of people with mental illnesses and/or substance addictions who come into contact with the criminal justice system.
Here’s how it works: The program takes care of housing and food—things the women would normally need from their trafficker. Participants get treatment for trauma and addiction, and they are eligible to get their records expunged.
Part of DOJ’s Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program, the grant will pay salaries to allow a Memorial mental-health professional to be based in the jail and conduct assessments of inmates within a day or two after they are brought in by police.
When the MacArthur Foundation called Lisa Daugaard to tell her she’d been selected for a prestigious fellowship, she didn’t answer. Daugaard thought the calls were coming from a telemarketer, and she had a lot on her mind.
Holyoke Medical Center says it is beginning to see less recidivism among opioid-dependent individuals coming through its emergency department, where it has added staff to help such individuals not relapse and to access help.
At the Mountain View Unit west of Waco last week, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice unveiled STRIVE, a new reentry program for women soon to be released from prison.
Council of State Governments Behavioral Health Director Ayesha Delany-Brumsey says, “The question that needs to be answered is, if there is a call to 911 for someone in crisis, how do we respond most effectively? As of now, the only options are to send the police or EMS.”
Being branded a felon left me facing discrimination with my jobs and housing, and I am unable to volunteer at my children’s school. Even though I turned my life around, I faced challenges at every turn.
Forensic Assertive Community Treatment teams provide a range of support services designed to keep people with serious mental illness out of the hospital and out of the criminal justice system.
The Governor’s Office, in collaboration with the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet’s Office of Drug Control Policy, is launching the “Hope and Help” initiative to provide vital resources to individuals struggling with substance addictions.
Providing housing and services rather than putting people in jail actually eases their addiction, ensures they have the tools to break the cycle of homelessness and has saved Seattle millions in law enforcement and emergency room costs.