The Bureau of Justice Assistance’s (BJA) 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. JMHCP is authorized by the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004 (MIOTCRA) (Public Law 108-414), the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Reauthorization and Improvement Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-416), and as amended by the 21st Century Cures Act (Public Law 114-255). JMHCP seeks to increase public safety by facilitating collaboration among the criminal justice, mental health, and substance abuse treatment systems to increase access to mental health and other treatment services for individuals with MI or CMISA. The program promotes officer and public safety through the coordination of system resources for people who are accessing multiple services including hospital emergency departments, jails, and mental health crisis services. JMHCP promotes cross-discipline training for justice and treatment professionals; and facilitates communication, collaboration, and the delivery of support services among justice professionals, and treatment and related service providers. In addition, projects funded through JMHCP must address opioid abuse reduction.

The recipient will use funds to conduct planning and implementation activities to increase and maintain jail capacity for violent offenders, and to develop a system-wide coordinated approach to safely reduce the prevalence of low risk individuals with MI and CMISA in local jails. In the planning phase, the recipient will establish or utilize an existing team of county leaders and other stakeholders to engage in the planning process; develop a plan to conduct timely screening and assessments for MI and CMISA and for risk of recidivism; establish baseline measures; conduct a comprehensive process analysis and inventory of services to determine existing policies, practices, programs and treatments that exist; and identify service capacity and gaps as well as evidence-based programs and practices. Upon BJA’s approval of the recipient’s “Planning and Implementation Guide,” the recipient will then proceed to implementation activities.