Co-occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Health Court

In 2018, the 36th District Court sought support through BJA to plan and implement a Mental Health Court Program.   In 2019 the Court was 1 out of 10 applicants in the country to receive grant funding through the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program to endeavor Collaborative County Approaches to Reducing the Prevalence of Individuals with Serious Mental Illnesses in Jails.  The 24-month funding opportunity, set to expire 09/30/2021, supported the Court during it’s planning phase.  During the planning time, the Court hired a coordinator and a case manager and assembled a steering committee that met and developed policies and procedures for a post plea program for misdemeanor offenders.

            The Court is now currently seeking $500,000 in funding, with a budget of $666,662 that includes a 25% cash match of $166,662 under Category 3: ADULT DRUG COURTS. Competition ID: BJA-2021-00019 to fully implement a Co-occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Health Court (herein COSAMI) with a capacity to serve 50 participants annually.  Persons who possess strictly a mental health illness and no cooccurring substance diagnosis will be placed on a separate docket from the COSAMI docket.  Persons with only a substance abuse diagnosis will continue to be placed in the Court’s existing Drug Treatment Court.  The Honorable Shannon A. Holmes will serve as Presiding Judge over the COSIMA Treatment Court. Funds will be used to support a specialty court coordinator, a case manager and to provide housing support such as transitional housing or emergency housing assistance.  

            The Court is located in the city of Detroit, county of Wayne, Michigan.  According to the US Census, the population in 2019 was 670, 031 with a median household income at $30,894 having 35% of its population in poverty.[1]

[1] https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/detroitcitymichigan