The Council of State Governments Justice Center has received a grant from the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati to develop a data entry system that will enable mental health courts to improve their data collection processes.

As communities across the country struggle to keep people with mental illnesses from repeated involvement with the criminal justice system, the number of mental health courts has grown rapidly. Despite their popularity, most of these courts do not have an effective system for amassing and analyzing data on their participants and demonstrating their impact with documented results.

Justice Center staff will create a data entry system that will provide mental health courts with a foundation for collecting consistent data on all of their participants, which can help them to improve their program procedures and assess how their participants are faring. In addition, the data system will also help to facilitate standardized data collection across programs. This will allow the field to understand more clearly the elements of mental health courts that contribute to positive results and thereby improve outcomes for people with mental illnesses involved with the criminal justice system. This project will build on the Justice Center’s work on data collection with the five Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) mental health court learning sites.

With the help of staff from the Ohio Supreme Court, the Justice Center will begin this project by convening a group of Ohio mental health courts in May to develop specifications for the data entry system and discuss the type of information that courts would like to collect and the reports they would like to generate. Once developed, the system will be piloted by the participating courts and then promoted across Ohio and, eventually, nationwide.

For years Ohio has been on the forefront of the mental health court field, and Justice Center staff are grateful to the Health Foundation for the chance to work closely with Ohio programs to develop the data entry system. The Health Foundation has been instrumental in promoting health policy in the state, and this product should help to complement the Foundation’s critical work.

To read more about the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati, visit http://www.healthfoundation.org.

The Florida House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill on April 19, 2008, designed to provide community-based services to people with mental illnesses and reduce the state’s dependence on costly forensic treatment beds.

House Bill 7085 is based on a comprehensive report (pdf) developed by Florida State Court Chief Justice Fred Lewis’s task force, which is led by Judge Steven Leifman, the special advisor on criminal justice and mental health to the Florida Supreme Court. Last year, Florida was one of the seven states selected to participate in the Chief Justices’ Criminal Justice/Mental Health Leadership Initiative and receive support and technical assistance from the Council of State Governments Justice Center and National GAINS Center.

Proponents of the new bill believe that it will save millions of taxpayer dollars by providing community-based services to people with mental illnesses so that they are less likely to enter the criminal justice system due to untreated mental illnesses. The bill is now being considered by the Senate.

The bill is discussed further in the following editorials:

Pensacola News Journal - Senate should join House on jail mental-health plan

Florida Today - Our view: Cruel and costly: State should approve first step in overhauling mental health care in jails and prisons

Palm Beach Post - Save money, cut crime; treat the mentally ill

On April 9, 2008, President Bush signed the Second Chance Act of 2007. This first-of-its-kind legislation will authorize various grants to government agencies and nonprofit groups to provide employment assistance, substance abuse treatment, housing, family programming, mentoring, victims support, and other services that can help reduce re-offending and violations of probation and parole.

"I will be working with my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee to make certain that the Second Chance Act has the funding to enable community and faith-based organizations to deliver needed services," said Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS). "Properly supported, this law will also help connect people released from prison and jail to mentoring, vital mental health and substance abuse treatment, expand job training and placement services, and facilitate transitional housing and case management services."

To read more, visit the Reentry Policy Council website.

• Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) is currently recruiting experts in the criminal justice/mental health field to serve as peer reviewers to evaluate the 2008 Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program grant applications. Interested individuals should submit their resume to Rebecca Rose, BJA, Rebecca.rose@usdoj.gov
  
  
• 4/30/08 - Texas Task Force on Indigent Defense announces a $90,000 grant from the State Justice Institute to study criminal justice mental health processing services (pdf)
  
  
• Save the date: 5/14/08 - National Academy for State Health Policy web-based seminar "Creative Approaches to Using Medicaid in Juvenile Justice Systems"
  
  
• Urban Justice Center's "Parents with Psychiatric Disabilities Legal Advocacy Project" is scheduled to begin on July 1, 2008

Bastrop Daily Enterprise (LA)- CIT officers to meet vital need
5/03/08 - "Nineteen area law enforcement officers joined the Northeast Delta Crisis Intervention Team in graduation ceremonies Friday at the Bastrop Visitor Center. Graduates are volunteers who have gone the extra mile for their community by seeking special training to understand and deal with citizens afflicted with mental illness.

WMFD News (OH) - 37 Graduate from mental health court
5/02/08 - "Judge Jerry Ault started this specialized treatment program in 2004. Since then 168 men and women have completed the program which boasts a very low recidivism rate."

The Des Moines Register (IA) - Study: 93% of prisoners have had disorders
5/01/08 - “More than 90 percent of the men and women entering Iowa’s prisons have had mental illness or an addictive disorder, and 30 percent are at risk for suicide, according to a new University of Iowa study.”

The Post-Star (NY) - Union calls for removal of mental health unit at prison
5/01/08 - “The union that represents correction officers at Great Meadow Correctional Facility is calling for the state to scrap a new prison unit for the mentally ill because of security concerns.”

Tri-City Herald (WA) - Benton County commissioner pushes for jail mental health programs
4/29/08 - “Benton County should use an estimated $1 million in sales tax money to beef up mental health programs in the county jail, contends County Commissioner Claude Oliver.”

Gainesville Times (GA) - Getting HELP: Special court designed to help mentally ill
4/27/08 - “Hall County HELP Court started in December 2004 as one of four accountability courts in the local judicial system, with the focus on people suffering from mental illnesses.”

The Florida Times-Union (FL) - Program keeps the mentally ill out of state jails
4/22/08 - “The mission of Nassau’s mental health court – one of 10 statewide – is to keep mentally ill people out of Florida’s jails, said Judi Evans of Florida’s National Alliance on Mental Illness. It was the first such court in Northeast Florida.”

The Denver Post (CO) - Better to aid mentally ill outside of jail, report says
4/19/08 - “One of every five inmates jailed in the seven-county Denver metro area has a serious mental illness, and housing them takes a $34.4 million annual bite out of the counties’ tight budgets, according to a new report by a Metro Area County Commissioners’ task force.”

Beloit Daily News (WI) - Mental health court considered by county
4/19/08 - “Some people who are arrested and thrown into the criminal justice system have mental health issues to deal with, and the Rock County’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) is looking at ways to address those issues.”

WFTV.com (FL) - Budget cuts mean mental health arrests may have to go to jail
4/17/08 - “They are some of society’s most vulnerable, the mentally ill and addicted. They are also arrested more frequently than any other groups. Now state funding cuts may mean they have no place to go but jail when cops pick them up.”

The Detroit News (MI) - Mentally ill inmates cost $400M year
4/15/08 - “That’s why Gov. Jennifer Granholm wants $3.4 million in the coming fiscal year to establish five mental health courts—pilot projects designed to keep more mentally ill residents from flooding jails and prisons.”

Salem News (OH)- Stratton makes area visit
4/14/08 - “Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton said she’s still focusing on mental health issues in her bid for a third term, but she doesn’t consider using alternatives to jail as being soft on crime.”

The Huntsville Times (AL) - Opinion: Mental illness, addiction and crime
4/13/08 - “Several state agencies, including the Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, the Department of Corrections and the Department of Youth Services (DYS), recently participated in the first phase of a multi-year collaborative strategic planning grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. It gave Alabama the opportunity to explore ways to reduce the number of adults and juveniles with mental health and/or substance abuse disorders that come into contact with law enforcement and the state criminal and juvenile justice systems.”