Effective Community Responses to People in Mental Health Crises: A National Curriculum for Law Enforcement Based on Best Practices from CIT Programs Nationwide
This course was developed to expand the reach of effective crisis intervention strategies to law enforcement agencies and to encourage the development of mental health community-law enforcement partnership teams throughout the United States. The curriculum contains 25 modules on various behavioral health and law enforcement topics with the flexibility to customize with special topics and local information. It includes an instructor guide, participant guide, slide deck, pre-course survey, post-course evaluation, and planning matrix. Leadership support and a dedicated coordinator can ensure long-term success. It is available at no cost to police agencies and mental health authorities.

Pathways to Justice®
This comprehensive, community-based training program provides critical information about people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) to three primary audiences: law enforcement, legal professionals, and victim service providers. Pathways gives law enforcement and supporting professionals the tools they need to effectively communicate with and serve people with I/DD. The curriculum contains six modules that cover: identification of disability, disability culture, effective communication, common interactions, accommodations and developing an action plan. Three of the modules are profession-specific and designed for Pathways’ target audiences. The training is customizable based on unique issues criminal justice and disability professionals/advocates want to address in their communities. Pathways is available at no cost to law enforcement agencies and district attorneys’ offices.

Academic Training to Inform Police Responses: A National Curriculum to Enhance Police Engagement with People with Behavioral Health Issues and Developmental Disabilities
Seeking to address the need for additional training and resources, researchers from the School of Criminal Justice at the University of Cincinnati, in collaboration with Policy Research Associates, The Arc of the United States’ National Center on Criminal Justice and Disability, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, are currently working on an academic training to inform police responses to people with behavioral health issues and/or developmental disabilities. This resource provides an overview of the program, including project design and implementation.

Webinars

Risk-Need-Responsivity 101: A Primer for SCA and JMHCP Grant Recipients
This webinar provides foundational knowledge on Risk-Need-Responsivity principles as well as guidance on understanding and implementing risk assessment tools as a way to direct resources and support recidivism-reduction strategies for criminal justice and social service agencies, practitioners, and policymakers.

Voices from the Field: Lessons Learned from Law Enforcement Mental Health Partnerships
Presenters discuss the unique challenges that law enforcement and mental health service providers face on college campuses, strategies for engaging campus stakeholders (e.g., students, faculty, administration and community residents), and information sharing. The webinar highlights two particularly successful learning sites, The University of Florida Police Department and the Madison Police Department (Wisconsin).

Traumatic Brain Injury in the Criminal Justice Population
This webinar discusses the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and its implications for the criminal justice system. It also addresses the causes, consequences, and signs of TBI, as well as the relationship between TBI and co-occurring behavioral health disorders. Presenters share management strategies to improve responses and support services.

Technical Assistance Provider

The Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center coordinates the training and technical assistance (TTA) for the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP)—a national effort to help local, state, and federal policymakers and criminal justice and mental health professionals improve responses to people with mental disorders involved in the criminal justice system. The CSG Justice Center provides TTA to facilitate planning, implementation, and expansion of collaborative initiatives. Both on- and off-site support is provided, including in-depth consultations with field experts and experienced practitioners, strategic planning assistance, and national training events and web-based seminars.

Resources available to grantees include: publications on a variety of topics across the criminal justice continuum, including law enforcement, courts, and community corrections; webinars; and more.

Please visit the CSG Justice Center’s website for a number of resources, which include:

• a main mental health page for general information about issues related to the intersection of mental health and criminal justice,
• the “About JMHCP” web page for additional information about the JMHCP grant program,
• the JMHCP brochure describing the program and grant tracks,

Mental Health Court and Law Enforcement Learning Sites
Since 2006, the CSG Justice Center has worked in partnership with BJA to identify and highlight agencies from across the country with comprehensive and successful criminal justice/mental health programs that are willing to share their expertise.

These “learning sites” serve as centers for peer-to-peer learning for other criminal justice and mental health agencies and organizations. To date, the CSG Justice Center and BJA have identified five mental health courts and six law enforcement agencies that use a range of effective responses to address the overrepresentation of people with mental disorders involved in their criminal justice systems. These sites have been chosen not only for their programmatic successes, but also for their ability to provide insight and guidance to other jurisdictions interested in starting or expanding a collaborative criminal justice/mental health effort. In 2015, the CSG Justice Center will identify a new group of mental health court programs to join the BJA mental health court learning site initiative.

Developing a Mental Health Court: An Interdisciplinary Curriculum
This free online multimedia curriculum is for individuals and teams seeking to start, maintain, or just learn about mental health courts. Developed by the CSG Justice Center with the support of BJA, it is the first single resource with the information teams need to translate current research on mental health courts into program design and operation.

National Technical Assistance Grant Training, Orientation, and Conference
All JMHCP grantees are required to attend an annual training and orientation event hosted by the CSG Justice Center. The goals of this conference are to:

• Facilitate participants’ ability to achieve the objectives of their collaborative criminal justice/mental health initiatives,
• Introduce attendees to best practices associated with positive public safety and public health outcomes for persons with mental disorders who are involved in the criminal justice system,
• Provide the opportunity for grantees to meet peers working in other jurisdictions and to create national networks of professionals working to address the overrepresentation of persons with mental disorders in the criminal justice system, and
• Offer in-person TTA from experts in the field.

National Reentry Resource Center
Since its inception in 2009, the National Reentry Resource Center (NRRC) has served as the primary source of information and guidance in reentry, advancing the use of evidence-based practices and policies and creating a network of practitioners, researchers, and policymakers invested in reducing recidivism. The NRRC—established by the Second Chance Act—is administered by BJA and operated by the CSG Justice Center in partnership with the Urban Institute, the Association of State Correctional Administrators, the American Probation and Parole Association, the National Association of Counties, and the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

See the one pager about the NRRC to learn more.

What Works in Reentry Clearinghouse
The What Works in Reentry Clearinghouse is a “one-stop shop” for research on the effectiveness of a wide variety of reentry programs and practices across a number of focus areas, including mental health and substance use. It was developed for the NRRC by the CSG Justice Center and the Urban Institute, with funding provided by BJA through the Second Chance Act.