Chatham County Criminal Justice Advisory Council

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) FY19 Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP) supports cross-system collaboration to improve responses and outcomes for individuals with mental illnesses (MI) or co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse (CMISA) who come into contact with the justice system. This program supports officer and public safety and violence reduction through social service and other partnerships that will enhance and increase law enforcement responses to people with MI and CMISA.

The recipient will develop a systemwide coordinated approach to safely reduce the prevalence of low risk individuals with MI and CMISA in local jails. During the project planning phase, planning activities may include: establishing a team to engage in the planning process; developing a plan to conduct timely screening and assessments for MI and CMISA and for risk of recidivism; establishing baselines for key outcome measures; conducting a comprehensive process analysis and inventory of services; prioritizing policy, practice, and funding improvements and estimating the impact of new strategies; establishing a process for tracking the impact of the plan on the key outcomes; and designing a data-integration/data-matching system between jails and community service providers. Upon completion of the planning phase and BJA approval of the required planning and implementation guide, the recipient will use remaining funds for implementation of the plan. CA/NCF