Congressional leaders in April took strong bipartisan action in support of three programs in FY 2020—the Second Chance Act, the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act (MIOTCRA), and the Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI)—aimed at increasing public safety and reducing recidivism at the local and state levels.
These speeches come against a backdrop of national criminal justice reform. In December 2018, President Donald Trump signed the First Step Act into law, which included the Second Chance Reauthorization Act, a bipartisan law that provides funding for reentry programs across the country.
President Trump signed the omnibus fiscal year (FY) 2019 spending bill, which provides $30.9 billion for the U.S. Department of Justice and includes $3.02 billion for various state and local law enforcement assistance grant programs.
Michael P. Boggs, a Georgia Supreme Court justice, has been appointed chair of The Council of State Governments Justice Center’s Advisory Board.
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The program, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, supports state, local, territorial, and tribal jurisdictions in improving efforts to reduce violent crime by creating a training and technical assistance program that assesses and confronts violence in schools.
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This webinar will focus 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 explain how these jurisdictions developed partnerships with their Veterans Affairs resources and other entities in their criminal justice systems.
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In this webinar, representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance and the National Reentry Resource Center will 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.
In this webinar, Leigh Ann Davis, director of the National Center on Criminal Justice & Disability, discusses differences and similarities between various kinds of behavioral health diagnoses and I/DD, how to identify someone with I/DD, and tips for to work more effectively with people with I/DD in correctional settings.
In this webinar, representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance and the National Reentry Resource Center review the FY18 Improving Reentry for Adults with Co-occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Illness application process.
This webinar focusses on a community-based behavioral health treatment provider as the lead case planner. The webinar feature the reentry programs of Bridgeway Recovery Services in Salem, Oregon.
In this webinar, representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance and the CSG Justice Center review the FY2018 Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program grant application process.
The Strategy Lab is a new interactive tool that features over a hundred examples from jurisdictions across the country of people working to reduce the number of people with serious mental illnesses in their jails.
The resource is an online searchable directory that provides comprehensive and up-to-date information on topics that cover housing, education, employment, family support, mental health, and other topics related to reentry.
This report examines the effectiveness of crisis lines for law enforcement officers, efficacy of annual mental health checks for law enforcement officers, expansion of peer mentoring programs, and ensuring privacy considerations for these types of programs.
Each chapter of this publication describes the programs and their origins, focusing on elements that can be implemented elsewhere in the effort to protect the mental and emotional health of law enforcement officers, their nonsworn colleagues, and their families.
This publication from the Institute for Innovation in Prosecution outlines how prosecutors can better serve the needs of those who frequently interact with the criminal justice and other social systems by implementing collaborative and community-centered solutions.
The resolution commits the county, led by the County Administrative Office, Sheriff’s Office, and the Probation and Health Departments, to a “call to action” that includes “sharing lessons” learned from other counties in the state and nationally.
According to the USDA, funds will be awarded to projects that have financially sustainable business models that will bring high-speed broadband to rural homes, businesses, farms, ranches and community facilities such as first responders, health care sites and schools.
Whether working inside a correctional facility or coordinating a transition for an individual on release, understanding the basics around benefits is the first step to ensuring continuity of care for individuals with a serious mental illness or medical impairment.
On a typical day, thousands of homeless and mentally ill people are behind bars in Los Angeles County’s jails. But more than half of them would be good candidates to divert into housing with supportive services instead, according a new study from the Department of Health Services.
“We’re under a consent order, we’re not fully funding it…we’re going to have to up our spending in the mental-health arena and actually get facilities in each county, like was promised in the consent decree,” says Doug Collins, who represents Georgia’s Ninth Congressional District.
The new courts have been in the talking stages in McLennan County for years. But now, with the leadership of two judges who will head the courts and with the backing of a slew of community mental health and veterans team members, the new courts have evolved into the reality stage.
One key partner is the Integrated Support and Recovery Services. Christin Skolnik, the interim manager, says, “We’re beginning to see really nice outcomes.” They help participants in a number of areas including therapy, both during and after jail.
The County Attorney kicked in $224,290 from its pre-trial diversion funds saying that, “Reach Out is the most visionary program I have seen in my 35 years working in the criminal justice system in Arizona.”
The Montgomery County Jail’s new program to help reduce recidivism is well underway and jail administrators like what they see so far. “We’ve seen some good results,” Jail Commander Lonnie Jones said. “The men have good attitudes and have been real anxious to be involved in this program.”
With seven times more people with mental health problems in jails or prisons than treatment facilities, police, EMS providers and jails have become the first–and oft-times only–response for people in mental health crises. It can be an expensive and ineffective response.