Justice Center staff comb newspapers from across the country for articles covering issues at the intersection of criminal justice and mental health. These headlines, and off-site links to full articles, can be found below. While we try to include articles on a wide range of reentry issues from varied sources, this list should not be considered exhaustive.

The links below lead to external sites that may require registration, additional archive searching, and/or a fee to view the article.

3983 Courts 2009-06-09 Media --- - Texas "Keeping probationers with mental-health issues on track is the goal of a newly launched mental health court in Nueces County. The idea is to give felony probationers the tools and support they need to stay out of jail." Media Clips 3979 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - Colorado "Law-enforcement officers often are first responders in a behavioral-health crisis situation." Media Clips 3978 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - Connecticut - Massachusetts "As a police lieutenant in New London, Conn., Kenneth Edwards Jr. realized he wasn't serving the mentally ill citizens he encountered." Media Clips 3977 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - West Virginia "Police, emergency services are taxed by mental health pickups" Media Clips 3976 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - Virginia "Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced Wednesday that the Department of Criminal Justice Services, in conjunction with the Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, has awarded grants totaling $200,000 to five local mental health agencies that will enable them to establish Crisis Intervention Teams. " Media Clips 3973 Courts 2009-06-09 Media --- - Michigan "Defendants with mental illness now have an alternative to jail, thanks to the combined efforts of legal and mental health professionals who have established a mental health court. Livingston County's Intensive Treatment Court, which District Judge Carol Sue Reader will oversee, officially kicked off Friday at a morning reception at the Judicial Center in Howell." Media Clips 3972 Courts 2009-06-09 Media --- - California "The Supervised Treatment After Release program, [now] in its 10th year, allows criminal defendants with a history of mental illness to enroll in counseling and rehabilitation as an alternative to going to jail." Media Clips 3971 2009-06-09 Media --- - Michigan "Michigan's jails and prisons have become the new institutions for people with mental illnesses. This is not the right way to treat these patients and their illnesses, and it is not the right way to spend taxpayer money." Media Clips 3970 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - Texas "Counties can divert mentally ill offenders from jail through programs that protect public safety while saving taxpayer dollars. Bexar County has established a successful three-pronged jail diversion program that can serve as a model for other Texas counties." Media Clips 3969 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - Florida "The Palm Beach Police Department was recently awarded a certificate of recognition from the Florida Crisis Intervention Team Coalition. The certificate was presented 'in recognition of the Palm Beach Police Department's outstanding efforts to establish a first-responder system to assist individuals who may be in mental health or substance abuse crises,' said Michele Saunders, on behalf of the Florida Crisis Intervention Team Coalition." Media Clips 3968 2009-06-09 Media --- - Texas "The Heart of Texas Crisis Care Center... is a 24-hour, one-stop shop for people experiencing a psychiatric crisis. Law enforcement personnel and the public can bring people with acute mental health issues there for evaluation and treatment." Media Clips 3967 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - New York "With little fanfare, a team of two Yonkers police officers and a counselor began patrolling downtown streets last month, attempting to reach out to the mentally ill and the homeless." Media Clips 3966 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - Missouri "More than 50 local law enforcement officers graduated yesterday from a program designed to help them better identify people with mental illnesses as well as help them get treatment." Media Clips 3965 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - Minnesota "Crisis-intervention team is trained to help mentally ill" Media Clips 3964 2009-06-09 Media --- - Tennessee "A mental health crisis can be a frightening experience, both for the individual and for his or her family... Respond is a toll-free service staffed by licensed counselors, and it exists to help families find out what their options are when a loved one seems out of control." Media Clips 2593 Corrections 2009-06-09 Media --- - New York On any given day, hundreds of New York State's mentally ill inmates are enclosed in solitary confinement, often called 'special housing units' (SHUs).... Media Clips 3789 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - Kentucky "Several local and area police officers are back in the classroom this week, learning how to improve their communications skills with a certain part of the population they often see. Officers from the Owensboro Police Department, the Daviess County Sheriff's Department and the Henderson Police Department are participating in Crisis Intervention Team training each day this week. The 40-hour class is aimed at helping officers in the field better understand and deal with people who may be mentally ill, developmentally disabled or distraught and suicidal, among others." Media Clips 3788 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - Kentucky "First responders from across western Kentucky are in Owensboro this week for some special training to deal with emergencies involving mental illness." Media Clips 3787 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - Mississippi "Harrison County supervisors on Monday agreed to support a bill that would allow law enforcement officers to place a person on a 72-hour medical hold if they think the person is mentally ill... They told supervisors they would like the bill to be passed statewide, but it may only pass in this area, depending on the amount of support it gets. " Media Clips 3756 2009-06-09 Media --- - New Mexico "When pressures mount and escalate into a crisis situation, there is a local squad that knows how to intervene. The Mobile Crisis Response Team (MCRT) is on call year-round, around the clock to deal with everything from suicide threats to crises related to drugs, post-traumatic stress disorders and mental health emergencies." Media Clips 3755 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - Virginia "Statewide law enforcement authorities who came to Albemarle on Thursday to learn about the Thomas Jefferson Area Crisis Intervention Team heard an impassioned speech from a man who has seen a flawed mental health system at work. " Media Clips 2590 Corrections 2009-06-09 Media --- - New York Tens of thousands of state residents with serious psychiatric disabilities don't have access to affordable housing and their quality of life has suffered.... New York spends millions each year on services that don't help this population long term, they said, such as shelters, hospitals, adult homes and prisons. Media Clips 2589 2009-06-09 Media --- - West Virginia Four people roaming the streets of New York. They are practically homeless and are mentally ill. Some are even causing chaos. Should the city feed and clothe them, get them mental help, ignore them or throw them in jail? Media Clips 2588 2009-06-09 Media --- - New Jersey At a press conference with the local group Save Latin America, the representatives released part of the statewide eight-page report called Time for Action: Improving Mental Health Services for the Latino Community, which outlines some of these deficiencies and lists eight recommendations for improvement. Media Clips 2587 Corrections 2009-06-09 Media --- - California Like any minority group, people suffering from mental illnesses are painted with a broad brush as criminals. Media Clips 3931 Courts 2009-06-09 Media --- - Michigan "A new court recently began addressing the problems of mentally ill people who repeatedly come into contact with the criminal justice system. Six people are now being supervised and getting services through the Berrien County Mental Health Court, set up as a pilot program with a $160,780 state grant. Berrien Trial Court Chief Judge Alfred Butzbaugh said the voluntary program has a capacity of 15 cases." Media Clips 3930 Courts 2009-06-09 Media --- - Ohio "Help rather than jail time could be the answer for some defendants in Municipal Court. The court is working with the Stark County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board to offer mental-health treatment to certain mentally ill and emotionally disturbed people as an alternative to jail." Media Clips 3929 Courts 2009-06-09 Media --- - Michigan "The Allegan County Board of Commissioners took the first step Thursday toward creating a mental-health court. The board applied for a $39,774 federal grant for the court, being called the ``Problem Solving Court.'' " Media Clips 3928 Courts 2009-06-09 Media --- - New York "Like the county's Veterans and Drug Treatment courts, Mental Health Court offers offenders the chance for a reduced sentence in exchange for addressing a problem." Media Clips 3933 Courts 2009-06-09 Media --- - Florida "It could be the most important legislation for Floridians with mental illness since the Baker Act in the 1970s. But you wouldn't know it from the amount of press it's getting. A House panel approved a measure yesterday that would divert some of the state's most mentally ill to treatment centers instead of prisons." Media Clips 3932 Courts 2009-06-09 Media --- - Colorado "Following more than 250 examples nationwide and several in Colorado, Denver is beginning to see progress more than halfway through a three-year program that seeks to put select nonviolent, mentally ill offenders into treatment instead of behind bars. " Media Clips 3773 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - California "The Susanville Police Department has partnered with several different agencies around the county to create a program designed to better assist people suffering from mental illness." Media Clips 3772 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - Oregon "...18 police officers and one 911 dispatcher have completed 40 hours of training that leaves them better equipped to deal with mentally ill people, police officials said. The 'crisis intervention team' training gives officers extra techniques to defuse standoffs and other dangerous situations, police said." Media Clips 3771 Courts 2009-06-09 Media --- - South Carolina "Greenville County’s mental health court is operating on a shoestring since it ran out of funding, but the partners are trying to keep it going until new funds can be found." Media Clips 3770 Courts 2009-06-09 Media --- - Georgia "Claire - not her real name - is one of five people in the new Treatment and Accountability Court, which focuses on getting help for people who constantly run afoul of the law because of mental illness. The program emphasizes accountability, as a way to slow the county jail's revolving doors." Media Clips 3769 Courts 2009-06-09 Media --- - Louisiana "There are more mentally ill people in jails than in hospitals across the nation. And now Calcasieu parish is one of a growing number of communities trying to change that with a new Mental Health Court initiative." Media Clips 3765 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - New Hampshire "New Hampshire's status as one of six states without a single police unit to handle issues involving mental illness is set to end in the next few weeks when the Lilac City's Crisis Intervention Team begins operating." Media Clips 3764 Courts 2009-06-09 Media --- - Michigan "A defendant who shows signs of mental illness could be referred to St. Clair County Community Health for an evaluation. If the evaluation shows a sign of mental illness and the defendant agrees to undergo treatment, he can be assigned to a special mental health court docket that will be maintained by Probate Judge John Tomlinson." Media Clips 3763 Courts 2009-06-09 Media --- - Ohio "While some large cities have established specialized courts and dockets for people who suffer from mental illnesses, such is not the case in rural northwest Ohio." Media Clips 3762 2009-06-09 Media --- - Missouri "A sad reality is that Kansas City’s Municipal Correctional Institution has become a default refuge for people with mental illness." Media Clips 3754 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - California "Under current law, patients must be admitted if they are brought in by police -- but not if they are brought in by a mental health worker. Commissioners seek a quick solution to the problem." Media Clips 3753 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - New Mexico "Sgt. Carol Oleksak almost died when she was shot in the head by a mentally ill man. But instead of getting angry, she's trying to get help for others with mental illness." Media Clips 3752 Corrections 2009-06-09 Media --- - Missouri "Over half of the inmates at the city jail have been imprisoned there at least three times before. Local corrections and community leaders say that's in large part due to untreated mental illness and substance abuse. But a new program at the Municipal Correctional Institution, or MCI, aims to break that cycle. " Media Clips 3751 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - Missouri "Over the next few months, the Columbia Police Department will implement a new training and community relations program to improve policing of people with mental illness, a group that poses significant challenges to officers and the criminal justice system." Media Clips 3750 Courts 2009-06-09 Media --- [] "Though it has had only five sittings since its creation in May, Ottawa's new youth mental health court is already making a difference, those involved in the court said Thursday." Media Clips 3856 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - Indiana "Law enforcement officers in Evansville and Vanderburgh County are undergoing some intense training this week. They're getting a lesson on how to deal with those suffering from mental illness." Media Clips 3886 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - Virginia "Across most of Virginia, the first person called to deal with someone in the throes of a mental crisis is a police officer trained to make an arrest." Media Clips 3874 Law Enforcement 2009-06-09 Media --- - Georgia "On Thursday some local law enforcement officers and Lookout Mountain Community Services employees spent time learning how to work with those suffering from mental illnesses more effectively." Media Clips 2591 Corrections 2009-06-09 Media --- - Texas This kind of support could help reduce the lengthier jail stays experienced by defendants with serious mental illness. Media Clips 2592 Corrections 2009-06-09 Media --- - Florida The real problem is that we continue to expect law enforcement to deal with people with mental and emotional problems that require medical treatment. Media Clips