Criminal Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Grants
The Mental Illness Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004 (MIOTCRA) was enacted on October 30, 2004 (P.L. 108-414). MIOTCRA authorized the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program, which is administered through the Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice. The program was reauthorized for five years in 2008. Its first appropriation was $5 million in fiscal year 2006, doubled to $10 million in FY 2009.
The purpose of the act is to promote public safety and community health by facilitating collaboration between criminal justice and mental health agencies to divert individuals with mental illnesses from the criminal and juvenile justice systems and to provide treatment for them within those systems. For several years, a similar jail-diversion effort was administered by the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), coordinated with the Justice Department’s Mental Health Courts Grant Program. That program has now been supplanted by SAMHSA’s collaboration under MIOTCRA.
Three types of discretionary grants are available under MIOTCRA: 12-month planning grants ($75,000 maximum award), 30-month planning and implementation grants ($250,000 maximum) and 24-month implementation and expansion grants ($200,000 maximum).
Both states and localities may apply for a grant and must verify collaboration among a criminal justice or juvenile justice agency and a mental health agency. Programs can target either juveniles or adults and grants can be used in a wide array of initiatives, including efforts that are police-, court-, corrections- or community-corrections-based.
Applicants have to define their target population; ensure that assessments will be conducted on individuals receiving services; specify plans for making services available to individuals with mental illnesses upon release from detention; ensure that community mental health services are available to program participants or provide those services; ensure that measures exist for capturing outcome data; and supply other information requested by the Attorney General and the Secretary of HHS. If juveniles with mental illnesses are targeted, strategies must be included for addressing problems arising from a history of physical or sexual abuse. Applicants must also demonstrate their inability to fund the program without federal assistance.
updated 4/20/09
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