Mental Health Court Curriculum Project

The National Initiatives: Justice System Response to Special Populations program, administered by the OJP's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), aims to improve the functioning of the criminal justice system, by assisting state, local, and tribal jurisdictions to develop appropriate responses to persons with mental illness who come into contact with the criminal justice system, including opportunities to divert persons with mental illness into a system of case management and treatment. The FY 2010 National Initiatives: Justice System Response to Special Populations program provides funding to (category 1) link information systems to improve outcomes for offenders with mental illnesses, (category 2) develop a mental health court curriculum, (category 3) create a training and technical assistance program for the law enforcement response to individuals with mental illness, and (category 4) assess the pathways of women with mental illness to jails.

The Council of State Governments, through their Justice Center, will develop a practical mental health court curriculum that reflects the best knowledge in the field in each of the areas relating to mental health courts in a form that is both relevant and accessible to the range of practitioners around the country who need it (category 2). The mental health court curriculum is designed to accomplish the following goals: determine what mental health court practitioners need to know and how they will learn it best; develop a useful curriculum for these diverse practitioners through content that is tailored to their needs delivered in training modules that are dynamic and accessible learning experiences; and design marketing materials and a sustainable delivery plan that will connect practitioners at the local, state, and national levels with the curriculum materials.

CA/NCF