Persons with Mental Illnesses

CSG Justice Center staff facilitated an SCA Behavioral Health Program Grantee Convening session focused on Engagement and Pre-release Services Considering COVID 19 for FY19 SCA SUD grantees.

The purpose of this community of practice (CoP) session was to welcome grantees to the CoP and review overall goals, structure, and expectations. Grantees were introduced to Dr. Van Dieten, Senior Advisor at CEPP and Director of the NRCJIW, and learned more about her expertise. Grantees also introduced themselves, provided details regarding their program goals/deliverables along with what they are looking forward to learning about during these CoPs. Grantees connected with one another and built rapport through responding to discussion questions from CSG Justice Center and Dr.

This virtual forum brings law enforcement and housing practitioners, policymakers, and subject matter experts from across the country together in a virtual space where they can share promising practices and lessons learned on police and community responses to homelessness.

In this webinar, staff from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the CSG Justice Center will provide a brief overview of the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP) grant requirements. CSG Justice Center staff will explain the training and technical assistance opportunities and the other resources available to grantees. A presentation from FY19 JMHCP Van Buren County, Michigan, and FY19 County of Pitt, North Carolina, grant team members will be provided along with a question-and-answer portion at the end of the session.

This first session of the Aligning Health and Safety State Policy Community of Practice (CoP), hosted by The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center in partnership with the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), introduced the goals and expectations of the CoP and the work and priorities of the six participating teams.

Hosted by The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH). The CSG Justice Center and CSH hosted the second session of the Thinking Outside the Box housing webinar series, Prioritizing Housing Resources for People in the Justice System. Participants learned about how to connect people in contact with the justice system to homelessness and housing systems.

State and local leaders are beginning to understand that providing affordable, permanent housing is fundamental to reducing justice system involvement, particularly for people with behavioral health needs. However, affordable housing is scarce nationwide, and people who have been involved in the justice system face a number of barriers to accessing available housing, including stigma and prohibitions based on criminal records.

Although counties have made tremendous efforts to address the number of individuals with mental illness who are incarcerated, they are often thwarted by significant obstacles, including operating with minimal resources and needing better coordination between criminal justice, mental health, substance use treatment, and other agencies.

CSG Justice Center staff conducted a virtual site visit and peer to peer connection with the FY20 JMHCP grantee City of Buffalo. During the first day of the virtual site visit, the attendees reviewed the Behavioral Health Team's operational flow and target population and then identified any remaining crisis system gaps. CSG Justice Center staff helped the Buffalo team debrief the team's Law Enforcement-Mental Health Learning Site to Houston and distill lessons learned that can be applied to the JMHCP program development and to the City of Buffalo's crisis system.

Unprecedented challenges have faced mental health services during the pandemic. During this webinar, Chatham Co., GA and Athens-Clarke Co., GA shared lessons learned while responding to increased requests for services while under COVID protocols, staff shortages, and pressure to be creative. The session was moderated by a representative of the Bureau of Justice Assistance who shared Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Grant Program (JMHCP) resources to provide support and when appropriate divert people from the criminal justice system.