Criminal/Juvenile Justice And Mental Health

• Federal grants, jointly administered by the Departments of Health and Human Services and Justice, should be provided on a national scale to state and local governments to encourage collaboration among a broad array of agencies - including housing, mental health, substance abuse, education, law enforcement, courts, and corrections - to create programs and policies that will maximize diversion from the criminal and juvenile justice systems of adults with serious mental illness and juveniles with emotional or behavioral disorders who have been accused of crimes and for whom voluntary mental health treatment is a reasonable alternative to criminal sanctions.

  Grantees could use funds to establish:

• Pre-arrest law enforcement diversion programs.
• Mental health courts, and other post-booking diversion programs.
• Community re-entry programs.
• Training for mental health and criminal and juvenile justice professionals.
  
  
• Individuals diverted under such programs should receive a full array of community-based mental health services, including: crisis intervention, case management, medication and medication management and, when appropriate, integrated mental health and substance abuse treatment services. Adults in particular must have access to assertive community treatment, psychiatric rehabilitation, and peer support services. Juveniles must receive multi-systemic therapy or wraparound services, mentoring, and family support services.
  
  
• To the extent practicable, programs should assist diverted individuals with housing, education, employment, health care, and benefits (such as disability income, disability insurance, and Medicaid).
  
  
• The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services should issue a State Medicaid Director letter clarifying that Medicaid eligibility cannot be terminated during incarceration (unless due to loss of some other benefit, such as SSI) for either juveniles or adults.
  
  
  • Ensure reinstatement of SSI and SSDI benefits for those released from correctional facilities.
  • Amend SSI law to permit suspended benefits to be payable on day of release; SSA would then confirm continued financial eligibility of individual.
    
    
• Create provisional presumptive eligibility benefit for individuals whose SSI has been terminated, pending SSA review of their claim and provided a health care professional certifies that they continue to have a disability.
  
  
• Suspend all continuing disability reviews for SSDI recipients who are incarcerated in correctional facilities.