Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration

CMHS Consumer Affairs E-News
September 19, 2006, Vol. 07-141

SAMHSA Awards Jail Diversion Grant in DeKalb County

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) today announced almost million over three years for a new grant to the DeKalb County Diversion Treatment Court in DeKalb County, Georgia. The grant will be used to divert people with mental illness away from the criminal justice system and into community-based mental health and substance abuse treatment services.

"All too often individuals with mental illness, especially those who have a co-occurring substance use disorder, are incarcerated instead of receiving treatment for their disorder," said SAMHSA Administrator Terry Cline, Ph.D. "By diverting non-violent adult offenders with mental illnesses from jail to community-based mental health services, individuals and the criminal justice system in DeKalb County will benefit."

These three-year grants require that mental health services be based on evidence-based practices and include case management, treatment using assertive community treatment, integrated mental health and substance abuse treatment, and psychiatric and gender-based trauma services.

The first year of funding--$318,918--will be used by the Dekalb County Diversion Treatment Court to expand local mental health services available to non-violent offenders with serious mental illnesses. The grant will help divert more individuals from the jail to a court-supervised, community-based treatment program. The Court has documented success with high retention (71 percent) and low recidivism (8 percent) in 2006 and plans to use federal funds, supplemented with local matching funds, to enhance outreach to refugees, immigrants and ethnic minority individuals.

For more information, visit www.samhsa.gov.

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The Center for Mental Health Services is a component of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, United States Department of Health and Human Services.