Sheriff's Office 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 county of Lauderdale will use the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP) grant funds ($50,000) to help their Sheriff's Department address three main decision points where an intervention can be made to prevent an individual from entering or moving further into the criminal justice system. Those three decision points are: (1) the initial response by the law enforcement officer, (2) the point at which the person is booked and retained by the detention center, and (3) the point at which the person re-enters the community. The Department's target population includes adults living in Lauderdale County who have been diagnosed as having a mental illness or co-occurring mental health disorder and substance abuse disorder; and adults who have faced, are facing, or could face criminal charges for a misdemeanor or nonviolent offense.

CA/NCF