Overview:
The Bureau of Justice Assistance, in coordination with the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Services Administration,
is administering the Mental Health Courts Program. This program will fund projects
that seek to mobilize communities to implement innovative, collaborative efforts
that bring systemwide improvements to the way the needs of adult and juvenile offenders with
mental disabilities or illnesses are addressed.
Community involvement should include the educational system, recreational program,
mental health system, drug/alcohol treatment programs, employment services,
and housing assistance. The goal of this grant program is to decrease the frequency
of clients' contacts with the criminal justice system by improving their social functioning
through stable employment, housing, treatment, and support services.
BJA funds projects that include:
- Continuing judicial supervision—including periodic review—over preliminarily
qualified offenders with mental illness, mental retardation, or co-occurring
mental illness and substance abuse disorders who are charged with misdemeanors
and/or nonviolent offenses.
- The coordinated delivery of services, which includes:
- Specialized training of criminal justice personnel to identify
and address the unique needs of offenders who are mentally ill or mentally
retarded.
- Voluntary outpatient or inpatient mental health treatment, in the least
restrictive manner appropriate as determined by the court, that carries with
it the possibility of dismissal of charges or reduced sentencing on successful
completion of treatment.
- Centralized case management involving the consolidation of cases that
involve mentally ill or mentally disabled defendants (including probation
violations) and the coordination of all mental health treatment plans and
social services, including life skills training, placement, health care, and
relapse prevention for each participant who requires such services.
- Continuing supervision of treatment plan compliance for a term not to
exceed the maximum allowable sentence or probation for the charged or relevant
offense and, to the extent practicable, continuity of psychiatric care at
the end of the supervised period.
Legislation: The Mental Health Courts Program was
created by "America's Law Enforcement and Mental Health Project" (Public Law
106-515).
Funding: A FY 2005 solicitation is pending for a single new demonstration site.
Eligibility: States, state courts, local courts,
units of local government, and Indian tribal governments may apply for funding
under this initiative. Grantees must provide a minimum 25-percent match, which
can be cash, in kind, or a combination of the two.
How/When To Apply: When the solicitation is released later this year, applicants must apply through the Office of Justice Programs' Grants Management System (GMS).
Technical Assistance:
The Council of State Governments (CSG), coordinator of the Criminal Justice/Mental Health Consensus Project, will continue to provide technical assistance to BJA Mental Health Court Program grantees planning, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining their Mental Health Courts. Additionally, they will provide similar assistance to nongrantee mental health courts and to other court-based initiatives to improve the response to people with mental illness in the criminal justice system. The focus of this year's technical assistance will be on helping court-based initiatives fully integrate their activities with other similar programs in the jurisdiction. To achieve this goal, CSG will make available the following forms of support:
- Convene a national conference for court-based programs to improve the response to people with mental illness including mental health courts.
- Maintain a web site dedicated to mental health courts, which also serves as a clearinghouse of information for anyone working in the criminal justice system seeking to improve the response to people with mental illness in the justice system.
- Provide onsite and offsite technical assistance to grantees and nongrantees.
- Develop a network of demonstration mental health courts, which will provide peer-to-peer support for courts seeking to improve their response to this population.
- Establish and maintain, in coordination with the TAPA Center for Jail Diversion (funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) an initiative to support judges and organizations serving the judiciary.
- Develop and disseminate a written product identifying and explaining the essential elements of a mental health court.
For more information on technical assistance available under this program, visit the BJA Mental Health Courts Program page at www.consensusproject.org and/or register for the Consensus Project e-newsletter.
Research and Evaluation:
National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors Research Institute (NRI)
Related Publications/Information:
"Mental Health Courts and Beyond" Conference Resources (June 2005)
Mental Health Policy Briefs
Mental Health Courts Program: Learning Sites Initiative
"Strategies for Court Collaboration with Service Communities" Program Brief,
November, 2003
The Police Response to People with Mental Illnesses
MS WORD
Mental Health Courts Program Fact Sheet
Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004
