SAMHSA News Release

$3 Million for Jail Diversion Awarded to Ten Communities

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced new grants to help 10 communities build capacity to divert persons with mental illness from the criminal justice system to community-based mental health and supportive services such as health care, housing and job placement. Also announced today was a new grant for a national Technical Assistance and Policy Analysis (TAPA) Center. This Center will provide information and assistance to the 10 grantees and other communities implementing jail diversion. It will also establish a national database on diversion program evaluations.

"These grants will help to avoid the costly incarceration of many people with mental illness by providing access to appropriate services and other supports in the community," HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson said. "Without these services many people with mental illness repeatedly cycle in an out of corrections facilities, costing criminal justice systems and communities significant resources and causing great pain to themselves and their families ."

The new grant program, administered by HHS' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), will provide each community with approximately $300,000 per year for a total of three years for capacity development of diversion programs. As part of the award criteria, each recipient was required to provide a 25 percent non-federal match in funds or in-kind items for the program. The TAPA Center will receive approximately $1 million per year for up to four years.

"Too many people who need treatment for mental illness are being sent to correction facilities instead," SAMHSA Administrator Charles Curie explained. " These new grantees will be using state-of- the-art community-based mental health services including case management, assertive community treatment, medications management and access, integrated mental health and co-occurring substance abuse treatment, and psychiatric rehabilitation to approach mental illness as the medical concern that it is."

Capacity development grantees are:

New York City Mayor's Office, New York, New York - $254,912 - for the EXIT Jail Diversion Program. This jail diversion program for non-violent, misdemeanor offenders arraigned in Manhattan's criminal court who have a serious mental illness will provide a mandated treatment readiness session and six months of voluntary case management for 85 offenders a year with mental illness and co-occurring disorders, linking them to - and engaging them in - culturally competent and appropriate treatment in the community.

Alabama Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, Birmingham, AL - $300,000 - for the Implementing Jail Diversion Using the Program for Assertive Treatment Model. This jail diversion project will develop a collaborative, community-based system of care that addresses the needs of individuals with mental illness by creating a multi-disciplinary mental health staff organized as an accountable, mobile mental health agency that functions interchangeably to provide the treatment, rehabilitation, and support services that persons with severe mental illness need to live successfully in the community.

South Carolina Department of Mental Health, Columbia, SC - $297,532 - for Project CALM Jail Diversion Program. The project will reduce the number of jail days for persons who are incarcerated in the detention center and reduce recidivism by making the full array of comprehensive services available for participants. Community partners have committed to provide housing, employment, education, healthcare, and other community support services.

Family and Child Services, Tulsa, OK - $300,000 - for Tulsa County Jail Diversion Project. This program will address the needs of persons with mental illness and co-occurring disorders who become involved with the criminal justice system. The project will fill crucial gaps in the jail diversion services presently available in Tulsa County by complementing the current jail-based post-booking diversion program with a) an expanded pre-booking crisis intervention component, b) court-based post-booking services that help mentally ill clients to navigate the criminal justice system, and c) an expanded jail post-booking program.

Chesterfield County Community Corrections Services, Chesterfield County, VA - $299,920 - for Day Reporting Center Mental Health Track. The Mental Health Track will divert forty non-violent dually diagnosed defendants annually from the local jail into a highly structured, community-based treatment program. Defendants will receive comprehensive and integrated services that will address both their substance abuse addictions and mental illness in a single location. This diversion will occur within the 48 hours following the client arraignment and treatment will be provided from six months to one year as indicated by the client need.

Department of Health, State of Hawaii, Honolulu, HA - $299,992 - for a Comprehensive Island of Hawaii Post-Booking Jail Diversion Program. This program will coordinate treatment with various agencies, such as the Big Island Substance Abuse Council, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Public Safety, Intake Service Center. Social workers from the Intake Service Center conduct the initial screen of jail inmates who appear to be suffering from co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders. This post-booking jail diversion program will serve the entire island of Hawaii.

Cumberland County Government, Portland, ME - $286,625 - for Divert Offenders to Treatment (DOT). Project DOT will divert at least 75 adults with serious mental illness and co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders from the Cumberland County Jail, using the Rochester, NY Project Link Model and expanding the City of Portland's Crisis Intervention Team Police Program.

Dubuque City Board of Supervisors, Dubuque, IA - $299,963 - for Dubuque Jail Diversion Program. This jail diversion program will provide alternatives to incarceration for persons with co-occurring disorders by implementing trained mental health intervention teams (MHIT) to remove non-violent mentally ill persons from the criminal justice system and direct them to a community setting for treatment. This crisis model acknowledges the needs of both mental health and law enforcement professionals while delivering results that produce a mental health disposition in lieu of jail.

Missouri Department of Mental Health, St. Louis, MO - $299,307 - for St. Louis Metropolitan Area Jail Diversion Program. This post-booking jail diversion program will identify, screen, and refer offenders demonstrating symptoms of mental illness for additional evaluation and appropriate services leading to community mental health treatment. Participants will receive intensive, short-term case management to increase the utilization of mental health and related services, and to decrease pre-jail time and recidivism.

Resource Center Award:

Policy Research, Inc., Albany, NY - $1,000,000 - for Technical Assistance and Policy Analysis (TAPA) Center. The Center will address, through targeted activities and outcome evaluation, the technical assistance and policy development needs of the funded jail diversion sites, mental health stakeholders and other jurisdictions with interest in the implementation of the jail diversion programs. The TAPA Center will be operated by Policy Research, Inc in partnership with the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, the Center on Behavioral Health, Justice, and Public Policy, University of Maryland. Additional collaborating organizations include: Human Services Research Institute (HSRI); Police Executive Research Forum (PERF); National Mental Health Association (NMHA); National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI); and the National Pre-Trial Services Resource Center (PTS).

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a public health agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the lead federal agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment and mental health services in the United States. Information on SAMHSA's programs is available on this website, www.samhsa.gov. 

 

This page was last updated on 16 October, 2002
SAMHSA is An Agency of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services