CP October Newsletter
Spotlight on JMHCP: State of Alabama
Each month, the Justice Center spotlights high-quality collaborative criminal justice/mental health initiatives that have received funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance's Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP). Justice Center staff members ask the practitioners in these programs to discuss some successes and challenges they have encountered in the planning and implementation process. This month's profile is from the Alabama Department of Mental Health and the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts, a 2009 planning and implementation grantee.
Project Summary:
The Alabama JMHCP project aims to build capacity for state-level training and technical assistance for jurisdictions interested in or already operating mental health courts or mental health diversion programs. On October 13–15, 2010, the Alabama Department of Mental Health and Alabama Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) hosted the first Alabama Mental Health Court Conference. John Houston, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Mental Health (DMH), and Callie T. Dietz, administrative director of courts, opened the conference by stressing the importance of cross-system collaboration in times of jail and prison overcrowding and diminishing resources. About 150 judges, attorneys, treatment providers, and community corrections officers from around the state participated in two-and-a-half days of presentations and breakout sessions led by national experts and practitioners from existing Alabama mental health courts. The conference agenda is available here.
In the next year, the Alabama grantees will prepare for a second conference scheduled for the fall of 2011, continue development of a technical assistance "toolkit" that will include sample forms and access to existing state and national resources, and develop suggestions for standardized data collection across Alabaman mental health courts.
BJA Announces FY2010 Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program Grantees
The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs' Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) has named its 2010 grantees under the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP), which was authorized by the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004 (MIOTCRA).
The 2010 grantees span sixty-two jurisdictions from thirty-nine states. Of these, twenty-two communities received planning grants with a maximum award of $50,000 for twelve months, twenty-seven received planning and implementation grants, with a maximum award of $250,000 for thirty months. Thirteen communities received expansion grants, with a maximum award of $200,000 for twenty-four months. All grants required a joint application from a mental health agency and the unit of government responsible for criminal and/or juvenile justice activities. View the full list of 2010 grantees.
The Council of State Governments Justice Center's Criminal Justice/Mental Health Consensus Project will provide technical assistance to the new grantees.
This is the fifth round of grantees funded through MIOTCRA. Through funds appropriated in FY2009, BJA awarded forty-three grants in thirty states under JMHCP. Through funds appropriated in FY 2008, BJA awarded twenty-three grants in eighteen states (and Guam) under the JMHCP. Read more about previous JMHCP grantees on the Consensus Project’s local programs database.
Excerpts from the Consensus Project’s Online Discussion Forum
In August, the Justice Center launched a new online discussion forum, where policymakers and practitioners from across the country can exchange ideas, ask questions of each other and national experts, offer comments and suggestions, and network around their collaborative criminal justice/mental health initiatives. The forum, funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), Office of Justice Programs, U. S. Department of Justice, can be accessed here.
Take a look at what’s currently being discussed on the forum:
Question: "Wondering if anyone else is using Wraparound in Juvenile Justice settings? If so, from which 'silo,' 'department,' or 'agency' are Wrap team members hired? Mental Health or Juvenile Justice?"
Response: "We have been using an intersystem wrap model with Juvenile Corrections for the last 7 years. We include Juvenile Corrections, Mental Health, Schools, and Child Protection. Other systems are included as needed. Funding for MH professionals in probation and secure detention is shared by the courts and MH. These workers provide SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment) for youth and families in the court. They also facilitate a coordinated care plan for youth entering the system and provide direct MH services. Ohio has multisystem Family and Children First Councils in each county. Each council has an adopted service coordination plan based on high-fidelity wrap models which is available and used by the MH workers and team. Having our workers embedded at the court has been highly effective in not only servicing kids and families, but in solidifying intersystem relationships so that we automatically think about issues from a coordinated perspective. Relationships are the key to success. .."
To read more of this thread, or post a response, please click here.
To start your own discussion, click here.
New Juvenile Justice Resources Available
The Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health released a new series of publications designed to help system of care communities meet the mental health and related needs of young people involved or at risk of involvement with the juvenile justice system. The series currently features three briefs, authored by the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice.
Nov 16 Nov. 16th Webinar: Measuring Program Performance in Mental Health Courts
The Council of State Governments Justice Center is pleased to announce its seventh webinar in the 2010 Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program Webinar Series, sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Assistance: Measuring Program Performance in Mental Health Courts. Watch the Webinar.