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This bill would reauthorize the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004 — allowing the Attorney General to give grants to entities that focus on reducing recidivism and improving mental health screening/treatment in correctional facilities.

The Attorney General would be authorized to award grants for sequential intercept mapping and implementation — essentially a tool to study how the criminal justice system interacts with the mentally ill — that works to:

Help mental health and criminal justice stakeholders develop a shared understanding of how people with mental illnesses move through the criminal justice system;
Identify improved responses for emergency and crisis situations, specialized police-based needs, plus community and post-prison supervision;
Hire and train personnel, identify target populations, and offer services to reduce recidivism.

When considering grant applications, the Attorney General would have to give preference to programs that collaborate with criminal justice, mental health, substance abuse, and veterans service agencies. Grants could also be awarded for:

Peer to peer services or programs for qualified veterans;
Practices that identify and provide treatment, rehabilitation, legal, and transitional services to veterans who have been incarcerated;
Training programs to teach criminal justice, law enforcement, corrections, mental health, and substance abuse personnel how to identify and respond to incidents involving veterans.

Grants could also go to helping correctional facilities:

Provide the clinical, medical, and social needs of inmates;
Assess appropriate treatments that address mental health and substance abuse needs;
Identify and screen for mental illness in inmates;
Develop and implement post-release transition plans.

","official_title":"A bill to increase public safety by facilitating collaboration among the criminal justice, juvenile justice, veterans treatment services, mental health treatment, and substance abuse systems.","short_title":"Comprehensive Justice and Mental Health Act of 2015","popular_title":null,"short_summary":"Comprehensive Justice and Mental Health Act of 2015\n\n (Sec. 4) This bill amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to authorize the Department of Justice (DOJ) to make grants to an eligible entity for sequential intercept mapping and implementation for:\n\n mental health and criminal justice stakeholders to develop a shared understanding of the flow of individuals with mental illnesses through the criminal justice system, and identify opportunities for improved responses, including emergency and crisis services, specialized police-based responses, and community and post-prison supervision; and hiring and training personnel, identifying target populations, and providing services to reduce recidivism. (Sec. 5) DOJ is authorized to award grants for:\n\n veterans treatment court programs involving collaboration among criminal justice, veterans, and mental health and substance abuse agencies; peer to peer services or programs for qualified veterans; practices that identify an...","summarized":true,"cost":100000000,"cost_commentary":"Assuming the funds are available, the CBO estimates that this bill would cost $100 million over the 2016-2020 period.","impact":"People — particularly veterans — with mental health issues that otherwise would be sent to correctional facilities, their families, mental health and substance abuse groups, law enforcement officials, federal corrections facilities, their employees, related federal agencies, the DOJ, and the Attorney General.","argument_for":"Prisons and jails are overcrowded with people who have mental health issues that should be getting treatment elsewhere. Law enforcement and community organizations need additional resources to cope with this problem.","argument_against":"Many criminals with mental health problems pose a threat to public safety — which is why they were arrested in the first place. Communities and law enforcement need help working with these people, but throwing money at the problem isn't the solution. 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Will More Grant Money Improve Mental Health Screening in the Criminal Justice System?