Douglas County Juvenile Justice / Mental Health Collaboration Project

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 Douglas will use the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP) grant funds ($50,000) to develop a strategic plan focused on corrections responses and treatment options. The target population is non-violent adolescent female offenders with mental illness, or with mental health and co-occurring substance use problems. This initiative will be accomplished through the work of a planning partnership among juvenile justice, mental health, researchers, a treatment provider for alcohol and other drugs, advocacy groups, education, and law enforcement.

CA/NCF