South Carolina Juvenile Justice and Mental Health Colloaboration Program

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 South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) and its partners will use the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP) grant funds ($249,639) to build upon and expand an existing strategic plan to serve juvenile justice youth in Marlboro and Chesterfield Counties. The targeted youth are at risk for recidivism due to undiagnosed and/or unmet mental health and substance abuse treatment needs. The Juvenile Justice and Mental Health (JJMH) Collaboration Program will help reduce juvenile crime and recidivism through the early identification of DJJ youth with mental health and substance abuse treatment needs and by providing appropriate services in a timely manner. Services provided through this program will help ensure that court-involved youth in the two counties do not continue to move through the juvenile justice system due to undiagnosed or unmet mental health or substance abuse needs.

CA/NCF