Justice Department Awards $34 Million to Support Community Crisis Response
This December 23, 2021, Department of Justice press release highlights fiscal year 2021 awards made through various Bureau of Justice Assistance programs, including the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program.
Justice Department Announces $29 Million to Support Justice And Mental Health Programs
This October 2020 press release highlights awards made through various Bureau of Justice Assistance programs, including the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program.
Mental Health Court Curriculum Now Available
With BJA support, the Council of State Governments Justice Center has launched Developing a Mental Health Court: An Interdisciplinary Curriculum, a free, online multimedia resource with the information teams need to plan, implement, sustain, or simply learn about mental health courts based on research and best practices from the field.
Justice and Health Connect Website Launched
With support from BJA, the Vera Institute of Justice launched the Justice and Health Connect (JH Connect) website, www.jhconnect.org. JH Connect provides a series of resources, with the aim of increasing agencies’ abilities to share data between community health and justice systems in a confidential, legal, and ethical way. The goal is to better serve people with behavioral and other health needs who come into contact with justice systems.
Learn About Developing a Mental Health Court
"Developing a Mental Health Court: An Interdisciplinary Curriculum," developed by the Council of State Governments Justice Center with support from BJA, is a free multimedia curriculum with the information teams need to plan, implement, sustain, or simply learn about mental health courts based on research and best practices from the field. It is a crucial one-stop resource for judges, behavioral health treatment providers, court managers, judicial educators, probation officers, and many others.
Survey Highlights Law Enforcement Mental Health and Crisis De-escalation Training
The Council of State Governments Justice Center, in partnership with the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training, has released The Variability in Law Enforcement State Standards: A 42-State Survey on Mental Health and Crisis De-escalation Training. This report presents findings from a BJA-supported national survey on training standards for responding to people with mental illnesses.
Justice Department Is Awarding Almost $320 Million to Combat Opioid Crisis
View a fact sheet to learn about the FY 2018 awards made for BJA-specific programs, including the Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Site-based Program, Innovative Prosecution Solutions, Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program, and others.
National Recovery Month (September)
National Recovery Month (Recovery Month) is a national observance that educates Americans on the fact that addiction treatment and mental health services can enable those with a mental and/or substance use disorder to live a healthy and rewarding life. The observance’s main focus is to laud the gains made by those in recovery from these conditions, just as we would those who are managing other health conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease. Recovery Month spreads the positive message that behavioral health is essential to overall health, prevention works, treatment is effective, and people can and do recover.
Stepping Up: A National Initiative to Reduce the Number of People with Mental Illnesses in Jails
See this resource for more information regarding who is leading this national initiative and ways to become involved.