June 2010 Newsletter
Spotlight on Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
Each month, the Justice Center spotlights 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 Los Angeles County, Calif., Sheriff’s Department, a 2009 expansion grantee.
Project Summary:
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), in collaboration with Special Service for Groups (SSG)—a community service provider, were awarded a 2009 JMHCP expansion grant to advance existing in-jail therapeutic services for people with mental illness and/or co-occurring substance use disorders. The LASD and SSG’s Project DIRECT (Direct Intervention for Re-entry through Employment, Counseling, and Treatment) already provides in-jail services that include education/GED preparation, peer-to-peer support groups, Moral Reconation Therapy treatment, and substance use disorder education. The expansion grant will facilitate an increase in treatment hours and add new services including trauma support groups, co-occurring support groups, housing education, and job skills/employment preparation and the development of comprehensive release plans for all clients.
Spotlight on the Local Programs Database (LPD): Los Angeles City Police Department
This section highlights profiles from the LPD that detail interesting collaborative criminal justice/mental health initiatives from around the country. This month, the Justice Center spotlights the Los Angeles City Police Department, a partner to the grantee profiled above and an active participant on the LPD. Below is an excerpt from their online profile, which can be read in full by clicking here.
Los Angeles City Police Department
Program start year:
Earlier than 2005
Primary specialized response:
Mental health professionals partner with law enforcement officers to provide on-scene crisis intervention and referral.
Secondary specialized response:
Mental health providers, often as members of a mobile crisis team, are called in by law enforcement to provide crisis intervention at the scene.
In Memoriam: Judge Brent Moss
Judge Brent Moss, of Rexburg, Idaho, passed away on Thursday, June 24, 2010, after a battle with cancer. Judge Moss is nationally recognized for his work pioneering problem-solving approaches to criminal justice, including the formation of the Bonneville County, Idaho, Mental Health Court, the first of its kind in Idaho and one of the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Mental Health Court Learning Sites.
Before his appointment to the bench by Governor Cecil Andrus in 1985, Judge Moss served as a prosecutor in Teton and Madison counties. In 2002, he spearheaded efforts to create the 7th Judicial District (Bonneville County) Mental Health Court to better address the needs of individuals with mental illnesses who came into his courtroom. Following Judge Moss’s lead, there are now ten separate mental health courts throughout the state.
"Judge Moss’s compassion for individuals with mental illness involved in the justice system was extraordinary. Those in all three branches of government recognized his leadership and vision for mental health courts in Idaho," said Patricia Tobias, administrative director of the Supreme Court of Idaho and a member of the Justice Center Board of Directors, quoted in the Rexburg Standard Journal. "Judge Moss was also recognized nationwide by the leading experts in this field. His passion, commitment, and many kindnesses to so many will inspire us forever."
Even after his retirement in March 2009, Judge Moss continued to work on this issue as advisor to Idaho’s Chief Justice’s Criminal Justice Mental Health Initiative, a state-level task force focused on identifying and coordinating promising practices throughout the state.
It has been an honor for Justice Center staff to work with Judge Moss over the years and to be inspired by his continuous dedication to thoughtful and innovative improvements to the criminal justice system.
Justice Center Seeks Four Law Enforcement/Mental Health Learning Sites
The Council of State Governments Justice Center, in partnership with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), has issued a request for applications from law enforcement agencies interested in participating in a new initiative that will focus on identifying agencies with a range of effective specialized policing responses to serve as resources for other law enforcement agencies nationwide.