Program Summary

The Winnebago County (Ill.) Therapeutic Intervention Program is a pre- and post-booking program. The pre-booking component consists of Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) law enforcement officers diverting individuals with mental illnesses to the mental health system instead of the criminal justice system. The post-booking program aims to identify persons in the criminal justice system whose criminogenic behavior can be attributed to an Axis I diagnosis of a serious mental illness. The Therapeutic Intervention Program Court (TIP Court) is a voluntary program where all participants agree to adhere to the rules and expectations, including taking prescribed psychotropic medications. The team comprises a judge, a program coordinator, an assistant state attorney, a public defender, a clinical jail assessor, two case managers, a clinical supervisor, two adult probation officers, and a nurse.

The TIP Court received a grant that has allowed them to add a full-time dual-disorder specialist, a full-time trauma specialist, and a part-time family education liaison. Participants receive services in the areas of intensive case management, housing, medication monitoring, dual-disorder treatment, trauma therapy, and family education and support. The goal is to decrease recidivism, reduce the number of days in jail and the hospital, and provide linkage to mental health treatment. Please click here for eligibility criteria details.

How did your jurisdiction realize that there was a need to respond to the prevalence of individuals with mental illnesses in the criminal justice system?

There was a federal lawsuit resulting from jail overcrowding, which forced our jurisdiction to look at the make-up of the jail population. By dong a point-in-time study, we determined that 16% of the jail population had a severe mental illness, which was comparable to the national average.

How did your initiative capitalize on preexisting relationships or partnerships in the jurisdiction, or build new ones?

The mental health system had a long-standing presence in the jail with a mental health liaison who worked to identify those inmates with mental illnesses. This liaison, however, was not sufficient to make a difference in the revolving door of individuals with mental illnesses finding themselves in the criminal justice system. The mental health system and the criminal justice system also had a long-standing relationship and further developed a strategy on how they could positively impact the numbers of people with mental illnesses in jail. In June 2003, the chief judge sent out invitations to over 100 key community stakeholders with an interest in forming a task force to develop a mental health court. There was an 85% response rate. This group met for 18 months to develop the parameters of the court and protocols and to deal with current issues. This task force also established the Community Mental Health Coordinating Council, the successor body to the task force, which meets quarterly to facilitate discussion and coordination among member organizations in the community who routinely have an interest in individuals with mental illnesses. The TIP Court opened in February 2005.

How did you identify your program's target population?

One of the roles of the task force's court committee was to determine who would be eligible. The main factor was that the defendant had been diagnosed with a severe mental illness (Axis I) and that there was a causal connection between the mental illness and the criminogenic behavior.

What has been your biggest challenge, and how are you addressing it?

Working with the dual-disorder population was our biggest challenge. There were financial and treatment barriers for participants to access services. There were no existing services that integrated this treatment. In May 2006, the chief judge called a summit of the mental health and substance abuse providers to discuss the issue and determine who could provide a service to resolve it. One substance abuse treatment provider and one mental health service provider were assigned by their respective agencies to a new program to provide integrated dual-diagnosis treatment. The separate funding of substance abuse and mental health services still provides a challenge for integrated services and treatment.

Provide an example of a particular success your program has had to date, either in moving from planning to implementation or in showing an impact on an individual, group, or community.

We have seen a dramatic decrease in the number of days the participants have been in jail or in the hospital since entering our program and after they have left the program. In turn, this has saved the county a tremendous amount of money. Please click here for participant statistics collected by the court.

What steps have you taken or are you planning to take to sustain your initiative?

Continued evaluation and enhancement of the court and case management structure, continued training, and continued funding sources.

Contact:
Judge Janet Holmgren
Chief Judge, 17th Judicial Circuit
400 West State Street
Rockford, IL 61101-1221
(815) 319-4800
jholmgren@co.winnebago.il.us

The number of people entering the criminal justice system with serious mental illnesses has steadily increased over the years. Criminal justice staff, however, often do not know if these individuals have ever received behavioral health treatment prior to incarceration. Staff of the Criminal Justice, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse Technical Assistance Center (TA Center) at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute (FMHI), a division of the University of South Florida, are attempting to answer this question by analyzing multiple data sets that capture mental health, substance abuse, and criminal justice data from state agencies in novel ways.

Most recently, the TA Center has received data from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ). Over the next several months, the TA Center will determine how many individuals in the juvenile justice system have previously been enrolled in Medicaid or otherwise engaged with the publicly funded mental health system, and how many have been previously arrested. To conduct this analysis, the first of its kind ever done in Florida, the TA Center will be comparing DJJ data with information from three state agencies: The Department of Children and Families, which oversees mental health services; the Agency for Health Care Administration, which oversees Medicaid; and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).

The TA Center has already conducted a similar data match with adult criminal justice data, comparing mental health and arrest information from FDLE. Results from this match are available for all 67 counties across Florida and accessible online here. The TA Center conducted this activity as a part of its role as a technical assistance provider for Florida's Criminal Justice, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Reinvestment Grant program; this grant program has offered funding to counties to support jail diversion initiatives throughout the state.

In the future, the TA Center will also be comparing the DJJ data with records from the jail system to determine how many juveniles with mental illnesses involved in the juvenile justice system, particularly those who are high risk, ultimately enter the adult system. This analysis will yield important information about the impacts of efforts intended to reduce recidivism among juvenile offenders.

For more information on FMHI and the data analyses they are overseeing, click here or contact John Petrila or Nicolette Springer.

On January 8 and 9, the Justice Center held a policy forum in Philadelphia as part of the Chief Justices' Criminal Justice/Mental Health Leadership Initiative, which the Justice Center coordinates with the National GAINS Center. In attendance were teams of judges, leaders of state agency, and other practitioners appointed to serve on task forces convened by the State Supreme Court chief justices from Delaware, Idaho, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin.

These four chief justices were selected from among 11 who applied to participate in the Chief Justices' Leadership Initiative. As part of the project, the chief justices agreed to form task forces of state leaders to develop a strategic plan to improve outcomes for people with mental illnesses involved with the criminal justice system. Over the next year, the task forces will receive technical assistance from the Justice Center and the GAINS Center to help them identify and implement strategies that will improve their state's response to criminal justice/mental health issues.

The policy forum represented the kick-off technical assistance event for the initiative, and involved key task force members gathering to learn from experts and judges who chaired similar task forces last year. Intended as a working meeting, the policy forum provided the state teams with time to meet and begin developing their strategic plans, with assistance from Justice Center and GAINS Center staff members and judges who helped design the initiative. Updates will be provided over the next few months as the task forces refine their strategic plans.

As part of the policy forum, the Justice Center held a reception on January 8 at the Union League. Special guests in attendance were Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery and the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, Estelle Richman. Both Justice McCaffery and Secretary Richman have been instrumental in advancing criminal justice/mental health issues in Pennsylvania. The Justice Center presented Secretary Richman with an award for the critical leadership she has shown to the field from the executive level.

1) The Justice Center is pleased to announce its first webinar in the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program Webinar Series:

Developing a Successful Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Grant Proposal

February 4th, 2009
2:00-3:00 p.m. EST

Presenters Include:

• Ruby Qazilbash, Senior Policy Advisor
  Substance Abuse and Mental Health
  Bureau of Justice Assistance
  
• Rebecca Rose, Policy Advisor
  Substance Abuse and Mental Health
  Bureau of Justice Assistance

An announcement with more details will be sent out soon.

2) The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has issued a call for applications for its 2009 Science and Service Awards, a national program that recognizes community-based organizations and coalitions that have shown exemplary implementation of evidence-based mental health and substance abuse interventions.

Awards will be made in each of the five categories:

• Substance abuse prevention
  
• Treatment of substance abuse and recovery support services
  
• Mental health promotion
  
• Treatment of mental illness and recovery support services
  
• Co-occurring disorders.
  

To be eligible for an award, an organization must have successfully implemented a recognized evidence-based intervention. Examples include those that are published in scientific literature and/or appear on a federal and/or state registry of evidence-based interventions. Both public-sector (i.e. state, local, territorial, tribal) and private-sector organizations (including community-based organizations and/or coalitions) are eligible to compete for these non-monetary awards.

Independent experts will review and recommend for an award the top scoring submissions. Winners will receive a commemorative award and will be further recognized on www.samhsa.gov. Award winners do not receive any financial compensation. Complete information is available on the SAMHSA web site at www.samhsa.gov/scienceandservice by clicking on "Application Materials for 2009 Awards." Applications must be submitted by February 27, 2009.

You may either submit an application for your own organization/agency/coalition or nominate others who are deserving of recognition.

Lehigh Valley Live (NJ) - Joining forces in Warren County to keep the mentally ill who commit nonviolent offenses out of jail
1/19/09 - "Mentally disabled residents creating minor public disturbances often attract a police response and then end up in the grind of the criminal justice system. 'It's a national problem,' said Warren County Director of Corrections Byron Foster. What's needed, he said, is a shift in focus from punitive measures to mental health treatment."

Columbia Tribune (MO) - Law officers troubled by mental health-care trend
1/19/09 - "A lack of local bed space for mental health patients is worrying law enforcement officials."

Fosters Daily Democrat (NH) - A new chapter: N.H.'s first Crisis Intervention Team graduates
1/16/09 - "After 40 hours of training on how to deal with the mentally ill in police situations, members of New Hampshire's first Crisis Intervention Team were recognized at a graduation ceremony."

Boston Globe (MA) - Harvard study: Under-treatment of mental illness contributes to crime
1/15/09 - "Two thirds of prisoners nationwide with a mental illness were off treatment at the time of their arrest, according to a new study by Harvard researchers that suggests under-treatment of mental illness contributes to crime and incarceration."

San Antonio Express-News (TX) - Police unit strives to avoid force
1/14/09 - The San Antonio "Police Department this week unveiled the Mental Health Police Detail, a two-officer unit that aims to avoid [negative] outcomes and improve how police interact with the mentally ill. The detail coordinates with mental health professionals and has been active since early last month."

MSNBC (IL) - Illinois county starts new court for veterans
1/13/09 - "Taking a page from a similar program launched a year ago in New York, court administrators in this suburban St. Louis county plan to launch within weeks a new court designed to deal only with military veterans charged with nonviolent crimes."

Houston Chronicle (TX) - Judge hopes mental health court will cut repeat arrests
1/11/09 - "Harris County's criminal district judges voted Wednesday to devote [State District Judge]Krocker's court, the 184th, to felony cases of defendants diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and severe depression."

WKYC (OH) - Eleven states now model mental health programs after Ohio's
1/8/09 - "Four more states have joined a national initiative on mental illness and the courts modeled on Ohio's program started by Supreme Court of Ohio Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton."