Greene County's Justice and Mental Health Collaboration

The Bureau of Justice Assistance's (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 county of Greene is eligible for $200,000 for a JMHCP Category 2: Planning & Implementation award. The County will partner with the Forest Institute of Psychology. Through this Justice and Mental Health Collaboration (JMHC) project, 20 city and county law enforcement officers will receive Crisis Intervention Training to de-escalate incidents with offenders who have mental illness. Also, JMHC project funds will provide screening, assessment and discharge planning for at least four hundred people with mental illness detained for non-violent offenses. The discharge plan will include funding for up to three primary medical care appointments for participants who have no Medicaid or other medical benefits. Follow-up counseling will be coordinated with sliding-scale providers for up to six sessions. The project will assist with bus passes, medical care and mental health care, as well as advocacy to obtain or reinstate mainstream resources. Transitional housing rental assistance will be established. Finally, the JMHC project will support successful transition to community treatment services and probation by establishing a pre-release substance abuse treatment program.

CA/NCF