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.
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This webinar will explore how implementing mental health service standards within correctional facilities can break down barriers between administrative staff and individuals who have mental illnesses.
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The purpose of this program is to improve the mental health outcomes of children and youth, birth through age 21, with serious emotional disturbance, and their families.
This four-year program is intended to implement and evaluate new Assisted Outpatient Treatment programs and identify evidence-based practices in order to reduce the incidence and duration of psychiatric hospitalizations, homelessness, incarcerations, and interactions with the criminal justice system.
Continuing the discussion started in the webinar, Understanding Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in People Involved with the Criminal Justice System, this webinar addresses the practical application of tips for working successfully with people in the criminal justice system who have intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DDs).
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 grant program and explain the training and technical assistance opportunities, Planning & Implementation Guide, and other resources available to grantees.
In this webinar, CSG Justice Center staff explain the training and technical assistance opportunities and resources available to FY18 JMHCP grantees.
In this webinar staff from BJA provide an overview of the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP) Category 2 grant requirements.
In this webinar staff from BJA provide an overview of the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP) Category 3 grant requirements. CSG Justice Center staff explain the training and technical assistance opportunities, and the other resources available to law enforcement grantees.
The data collection and evaluation learning community series for JMHCP and SCA grantees focuses on topics related to quality assurance and implementation science. This session was focused on “study and act” of the Plan, Do, Study, Act process featuring Dr. Faye Taxman from George Mason University and grantee speaker, Melissa Pierson from Franklin County, OH.
In this webinar, staff from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance provide an overview about the post-award budget, grant management, and performance measurement requirements.
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.
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 2-page brief provides four practical steps law enforcement executives can take to address and improve outcomes for people who are high utilizers in their jurisdiction.
This podcast features a conversation between host Tess Terrible and experts in the field, including The Council of State Governments Justice Center’s Behavioral Health Division Director Ayesha Delany-Brumsey.
This publication reviews the different ways people with disabilities have contact with the criminal justice system through examining existing work in the field and interviews with impacted community members and people with disabilities who have been incarcerated.
This toolkit reviews promising strategies that state Medicaid programs are adopting to address the substance use disorder crisis, specifically the opioid epidemic, including for people involved in the criminal justice system.
This report presents opportunities to expand what Douglas County is already doing well and improve upon systems performance.
Risë Haneberg, deputy division director for county initiatives for the CSG Justice Center, explains that since its inception, the Stepping Up initiative has gotten nearly 500 counties in 43 states to “focus on early forms of diversion” to keep mentally ill people from getting trapped in the penal system.
Since our founding in 2002, we’ve made tremendous progress and seen a significant impact on many patients’ health and well-being. Yet, new evidence from a recent randomized controlled trial shows that there is much more work to be done if we truly want to improve care, reduce costs, and advance overall health.
The Arizona Department of Corrections says 78 percent of the inmates in its custody have a history of substance abuse at the time they’re admitted into prison. But less than 4 percent of all inmates who spent time in Arizona prisons in fiscal year 2019 received treatment while behind bars.
The Judge Ed Emmett Mental Health Diversion Center allows people with mental illness who commit non-violent offenses to skip jail. They are offered space in the 28-bed diversion center, counseling, and case workers to prevent the person arrested from cycling in and out of jail.
A new study published in the journal BMC Public Health reports that children who were physically or sexually abused, neglected or otherwise treated badly, are at higher risk of showing delinquent behavior or offending the law, as they grow into their teens and later into young adults.
It took five years of effort in federal court, but my organization, The Fortune Society just won a precedent-setting settlement of a landmark civil rights case that shows how advocacy groups can bring lawsuits against private landlords who impose blanket bans on renting apartments to people with criminal records.
County officials representing urban counties at the 2019 Large Urban County Caucus Symposium in Miami-Dade County in Florida toured a new facility that will offer a full continuum of care for justice-involved individuals with mental illnesses.
Judges, law enforcement officials and health agency representatives filled a room on Wednesday at the Hawaii State Supreme Court for the inaugural Hawaii Summit on Improving the Governmental Response to Community Mental Illness.
For too many women who survive abuse and violence, particularly women of color and women living in poverty, the support and the care needed to cope with and heal from pain and trauma is simply not available in prisons or jails.
A new reentry program called Project Blue is a first-of-its-kind partnership to help formerly incarcerated individuals in Erie County transition back into society.