Expanding Mental Health De-escalation Training From Prison to Field Services

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 eligible to apply for this program were limited to states, units of local government, federally recognized Indian tribes (as determined by the Secretary of the Interior), and tribal organizations.

The grant recipient will use the expansion grant funds to expand upon or improve their well-established collaboration plan. Grant funds may be used to support law enforcement response programs including mental health courts, pretrial services, and diversion/alternative prosecution and sentencing programs. Funds may also be used for treatment accountability services, specialized training for justice and treatment professionals as well as corrections/community corrections, transitional, and reentry services to create or expand mental illnesses or co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders support services; and non-treatment recovery support services coordination and delivery. These services may also include case management, housing placement, job training, education, primary and mental health care, and family supportive services. CA/NCF