Who coordinates the JLI?

The JLI is co-coordinated by the Council of State Governments' (CSG) Criminal Justice/Mental Health Consensus Project and the Technical Assistance and Policy Analysis (TAPA) Center for Jail Diversion, a division of the National GAINS Center. CSG and TAPA are working together to help judges assume leadership roles on issues that can only be addressed through collaboration between the criminal justice and mental health systems. CSG serves as the primary grantee of the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) on criminal justice/mental health issues; the TAPA Center serves a similar role with respect to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). On this and a variety of other projects, CSG and GAINS/TAPA work closely together so that collaboration at the federal level between BJA and SAMHSA is translated into effective collaboration at the local level between criminal justice and mental health partners.

Coordinated by CSG, the Criminal Justice / Mental Health Consensus Project is a national effort to help state legislators, judges, executive branch officials, and criminal justice/mental health professionals improve the response to people with mental illness who become involved with—or are at risk of involvement with—the criminal justice system. The landmark Consensus Project Report was released in June 2002. Since then, CSG and its project partners have launched initiatives and provided technical assistance to jurisdictions across the country in order to translate the report's recommendations into policy and practice.

The TAPA Center for Jail Diversion, a division of the National GAINS Center, serves as a national resource for jail diversion information and research. In this role, TAPA generates new knowledge related to the implementation and evaluation of jail diversion programs and translates this information into tools for policy analysis and development. The TAPA Center also provides technical assistance to communities in order to enhance their capacity to address problems, enrich resources, and plan for future growth and sustainability.