The majority of people in prison and jail have a substance use disorder. Despite the promise demonstrated by some treatment programs for people who are incarcerated, just a fraction of the people who need services for substance abuse receive it. Connecting people incarcerated to treatment programs proven to be effective, prioritizing resources for those nearing release, and encouraging community-based aftercare will ensure better outcomes for people released from prisons and jails, and the communities to which they return.
Providing answers on relevant topics concerning Mental Health, Health and Substance Abuse topics.
At a recent North Dakota Justice Reinvestment Oversight Committee meeting, CSG Justice Center staff highlighted recent decreases in prison admissions that resulted from alcohol and drug offenses and probation revocations. These declines seem to be the cause of a 6.5-percent drop in the state’s total prison population in FY2018, which exceeded expectations, and have reinforced the state’s efforts to increase behavioral health services for people in the criminal justice system.
The CSG Justice Center today released a first-of-its-kind, web-based resource that combines extensive data analyses, case studies and recommended strategies from all 50 states to help policymakers address their state’s specific public safety challenges.
The Stepping Up initiative recently launched a national effort to help counties collect accurate, accessible data on the number of people entering their jails who have mental illnesses. As part of the effort, seven rural and urban “Innovator Counties” have been selected as models for their expertise in accurately identifying these individuals and consistently collecting data on them.
The Baltimore County, Maryland, county executive recently released a report that provides recommendations for the county to better position its police-mental health collaboration (PMHC), the Baltimore County Crisis Response System, to provide an effective and comprehensive response that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and maximizes both public safety and health outcomes.
Recently, the U.S. Congress approved the $1.3 trillion Fiscal Year 2018 Omnibus Appropriations bill that would set government funding through Sep. 30, 2018. The bill provides $30.3 billion for the Department of Justice and includes $2.9 billion for various state and local law enforcement assistance grant programs.
Arkansas’s first crisis stabilization unit (CSU) opened in Sebastian County on March 1 with high praise from Governor Asa Hutchinson. This center, which will provide services to people experiencing mental health crises, is the first of four such centers planned across the state. Officials are hopeful that it will serve as a model that other states can follow.
Join the national Stepping Up partners for the third webinar in the four key measures webinar series, where a national expert joins representatives from Calaveras County, California, and Johnson County, Kansas, to describe strategies for increasing connection to treatment in jails and in the community for people who have mental illnesses; they will also outline data points to collect, analyze, and track over time.
This webinar, hosted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) SOAR TA Center in partnership with the SAMHSA GAINS Center, will explore how the SOAR model can be implemented in criminal justice settings as a strong reentry tool to increase housing stability and promote post-release success.
The grants provide funding for projects that advance reform, spur debate, and catalyze change on a range of issues facing the U.S. criminal justice system.
The 2018 National Tribal Judicial and Court Personnel conference will provide quality culturally-appropriate continuing legal education to more than 200 tribal judges, peacemakers, and court personnel.
This webinar includes information on planning and coordination, behavioral health treatment, cognitive interventions, and community supervision practices as well as community resources such as housing and recovery support services.
This webinar focusses on best practices for screening and assessment of people in the criminal justice system who have opioid addictions.
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.
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.
This webinar provides an overview of national estimates of incarcerated veterans; explains components of the Veterans Health Administration’s veterans justice programs; expands awareness of the needs of veterans in the justice system; and discusses new developments in the Veterans Administration and community interventions to provide services to veterans in the justice system.
This webinar features Roger Peters, PhD, a licensed clinical psychologist and professor in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, University of South Florida. The webinar discusses the prevalence of co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders among people involved in the criminal justice system, as well as effective screening and assessment instruments to use with this population.
During this webinar, judges and other court personnel learn about the tips for recognizing indications of a mental illness and/or substance use disorder in the courtroom, the process for treatment recommendation and referral for defendants with behavioral health needs, and how to collaborate with behavioral health care providers in their communities
In this webinar, CSG Justice Center staff explain the training and technical assistance opportunities and resources available to FY17 JMHCP Category 3 Implementation & Expansion grantees.
In this webinar, BJS statistician Jennifer Bronson reviews the findings from two reports and discusses how jurisdictions around the country—namely Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program grantees—can use this information.
This resource center is an online clearinghouse of information, training, and other resources that support a variety of state, local, and tribal users, including BJA COAP grantees, policymakers, partner agencies and associations, peer recovery coaches, and families affected by the nationwide opioid epidemic.
This publication provides recommendations for state and local advocacy to help end the over-incarceration of people living with mental health and substance use needs using a Sequential Intercept Mapping Model.
This publication examines the barriers to treating youth involved in violent crime in the community instead of incarceration as well as gauges support for proposed reforms through interviews with members of the victims’ community.
This tip sheet from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service’s GAINS Center draws on research that has implications for people of racial and ethnic minority backgrounds who have mental illnesses or substance addictions who often face substantial barriers to accessing community-based services prior to their justice involvement.
This new journal from the National Association of Drug Court Professionals is dedicated to the topic of identifying and rectifying racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in treatment courts.
This publication from the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness lays out a plan for ending homelessness that focuses on identifying and describing essential federal strategies to build effective, lasting systems that aim to work both in the present and to be able to respond quickly and efficiently when housing instability and homelessness occur in the future.
This paper from the California Health Care Foundation reviews recent changes to the Confidentiality of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Patient Records, 42 Code of Federal Regulations related to substance addiction treatment.
This report from the Research and Training Center for Pathways to Positive Futures addresses challenges faced by transition-aged youth and young adults with mental health conditions as they try to find and maintain stable housing.
This publication from JAMA Network Open offers a cross-sectional analysis of the association between various levels of opioid use and health, co-occurring substance addictions, and involvement in the criminal justice system.
This publication from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation examines how public safety personnel, health professionals, and service providers can contribute to solving the problem of Frequent Utilizers—those who cycle in and out of jails, hospitals, shelters, and other social service programs at a startlingly high rate.
Called the Helping Overdose through Prevention and Education, or HOPE, program, a team consisting of a police officer, paramedic and a social worker has a goal of meeting with a person who overdosed within three to five days to connect them with appropriate assistance.
Rhonda Benson, executive director of the Butler County chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said each honoree epitomizes the purpose of the Stepping Up Initiative, which is to provide services and help for the mentally ill rather than having them repeatedly jailed.
U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who holds the rank of vice admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, said he and other health care professionals were once “part of the problem” by overprescribing opioids as painkillers, but now he’s “excited to be part of the solution.”
Miami County is already trying to do a lot of things recommended by the Stepping Up program, pointing to the partnership between the Sheriff’s Office, the Tri-County Board of Recovery and Mental Health Services, and the Miami County Recovery Council.
Six of the 24 Stepping Up counties were invited to the BPIA as “Best Practices” teams representing the Data-Driven Justice initiative and the Stepping Up initiative. Best Practices teams showcased their approaches and programs to “Implementation” teams.
“A lot of women, when they go to prison, we see them just needing a lot of therapy. Someone to talk to. They need to be built back up, given skills,” said Melissa Ludin, board president of Ex-Prisoners Organizing, or EXPO. “And when they get released and they still have that baggage, it’s very difficult.”
As many doctors and government agencies now consider these medical treatments part of the standard of care for opioid addiction, some are concerned that recovery houses with rigid rules prohibiting them are pushing more users into homelessness.
Realizing they can’t arrest their way out of the opioid epidemic, the Waynesville Police Department has partnered with other agencies to find new solutions to address these problems. Det. Paige Shell traveled to Seattle two years ago to learn about an innovative program called LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion) that has been successfully implemented by law enforcement to address drug crime and recidivism.
The Potter County Criminal Justice Advisory Board has developed a DUI Treatment Court, Drug Treatment Court and a pilot Pre-Trial Diversion Program to help people stay out of jail by offering substance addiction treatment and related services.
Pathways, launched by the county in early 2016, is designed for women dealing with mental health and substance abuse issues who were funneling into and out of jail, said Patrice Palmer, a reentry social-support specialist at the Franklin County Office of Justice Policy and Programs.