FY 23 South Carolina Crisis Intervention Program

As authorized by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022, Byrne SCIP will be used in South Carolina to provide funds for programs or initiatives that work to keep guns out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves or others. Pursuant to the requirements of the Bureau of Justice Assistance, a Crisis Intervention Advisory Board (CIAB) is being formed in South Carolina to inform and guide the state’s related gun violence reduction programs/initiatives plan. In the development of the plan, the SAA will involve key law enforcement, the community, courts, prosecution, behavioral health, victim services, and legal counsel, as well as justice personnel on the local, state, and federal levels. The historical demand of gun violence on the state's justice system, current efforts, and projected resource needs for establishing related court-based, behavioral health deflection, and gun safety programs or initiatives will be utilized by the CIAB to finalize South Carolina’s SCIP program areas. Upon review and approval by the state CIAB, the preliminary priorities for FY 2022-2023 are those programs and services that provide efforts toward the following:

Specialized court-based programs such as drug, mental health, and veterans treatment courts, including those that specifically accept clients with firearm violations.

Gun violence recovery courts that connect clients in crisis with community resources
Expanding the capacity of existing drug, mental health, and veterans treatment courts to assist clients who are most likely to commit or become victims of gun crimes
Threat assessment training for prosecutors, judges, law enforcement, and public defenders

Behavioral health deflection for those at risk to themselves or others

Behavioral threat assessment programs and related training 
Triage services, mobile crisis units (both co-responder and civilian only), and peer support specialists
Support behavioral health responses such as regional crisis call centers, crisis mobile team response, and crisis receiving and stabilization facilities to individuals who are in crisis
Law enforcement-based programs, training, and technology

Completed subgrantee projects (once known) will be evaluated to compare the subgrantees’ stated goals and objectives to the actual accomplishments and outcomes of the project or initiative. This evaluation will measure the overall effectiveness of the subgrantees’ initiatives in the collective effort to reduce violent crime and suicide in South Carolina.