Calcasieu Parish Juvenile Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Project

The Bureau of Justice Assistances (BJA) Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP) is funded through the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-414), which was reauthorized in 2008 (Public Law 110-416). The primary purpose of JMHCP is to increase public safety by facilitating collaboration among the criminal justice, juvenile justice, and mental health and substance abuse treatment systems to increase access to mental health and other treatment services for those individuals with mental illness or co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. Jurisdictions are eligible to apply for planning, planning and implementation, or expansion funding through JMHCP.

The Parish of Calcasieu is the fiscal agent for a federal award amount of $41,000 (to augment local match) for a JMHCP Category 1: Planning. The Calcasieu Parish Juvenile Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Project will use a planning process to design a model and a continuum of services for early intervention and diversion from formal court processing and incarceration in the correctional system, while assuring public safety. Part of the planning process
will address ways in which to eliminate disparities in mental health treatment and to ensure all youth have opportunities to access effective mental health interventions.

CA/NCF