Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2010, $600,000)
The Second Chance Act of 2007 (Pub. L. 110-199) provides a comprehensive response to the increasing number of people who are released from prison and jail and returning to communities, including resources to address the myriad needs of these offenders to achieve a successful return to their communities. Section 201 of the Second Chance Act authorizes the Second Chance Act Reentry Demonstration Program Targeting Offenders with Co-occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Health Disorders Program, which is designed to provide treatment and recovery support services to offenders during incarceration and after their return to the community. This section specifically addresses the treatment needs of offenders who have substance abuse disorders and authorizes grants to states, units of local government, territories, and Indian tribes to improve the provision of drug treatment to offenders in prisons, jails, and juvenile facilities during the period of incarceration and through the completion of parole or other court supervision after release into the community.
The term co-occurring disorders (COD) refers to co-occurring substance-related and mental disorders. Clients said to have COD have one or more substance-related disorders as well as one or more mental disorders. At the individual level, COD exist when at least one disorder of each type can be established independent of the other and is not simply a cluster of symptoms resulting from [a single] disorder. Projects will implement or expand offender treatment programs for re-entering offenders with co-occurring substance abuse and mental health disorders. Programs should require urinalysis and/or other proven reliable forms of drug and alcohol testing for program participants, including both periodic and random testing, and for former participants while they remain in the custody, or under community supervision, of the state, local, or tribal government.
The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities through the Integrated Recovery Integrated Services (IRIS) Program will serve adult female felony offenders paroled from the Therapeutic Community at the Tennessee Prison for Women. The project will serve 34 offenders annually and 74 offenders over the life of the grant. The IRIS Program builds upon existing collaboration and community treatment and recovery support providers. The goal of the project are to reduce recidivism and parole revocations; provide integrated services through a recovery oriented system of care that facilitates successful reintegration into the community; use evidenced based programming and strategies to provide consumer centered services for co-occurring disorders and to effectively address other criminogenic needs.
CA/NCF