Senators Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT), worked closely with colleagues to ensure continued funding for the program in FY 08. Other key supporters included Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

Earlier this month the House of Representatives passed its fiscal year 2008 CJS appropriations bill, which also reserved $10 million for the grant program authorized by MIOTCRA. For more information on the House bill, click here. Congress will vote on these bills separately and meet later this year in conference committee to resolve the differences between their individual bills.

House and Senate CJS Funding Comparison Chart
(in millions)

Other criminal justice programs listed in the Senate appropriations bill include the Justice Assistance Grant program (JAG), which is slated to receive $616 million and the Community Oriented Policing Services program (COPS) which is slated to receive $550 million. Additionally, $25 million was included for Drug Courts. The full text of the bill and committee report will not be made public until next week after the full committee mark-up.

The grant program, called the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program, is administered by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and provides grants to states to improve collaboration between criminal justice and mental health agencies. The program received $5 million in FY 06 and FY 07. For more information on FY 08 appropriations or the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act please contact Sara Paterni.

The Texas Legislature, adjourning in May 2007 for the 2007-2008 biennium, passed legislation to facilitate the sharing of information involving people with mental illnesses appearing before criminal courts. The legislation is a direct result of the efforts of a criminal justice / mental health task force, which Judge Sharon Keller, Presiding Justice of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (the highest court in the state for criminal matters), chairs.

The bill, SB839, authorizes the exchange of information between the Department of State Health Services and Department of Public Safety (DPS), which operates the state’s central repository of criminal history records. Once the legislation takes effect, DPS will be able to access the state mental health database and create a “flagging system” to enable authorized jail and court personnel to determine immediately whether individuals brought before them have had prior contact with the mental health system and whether they should undergo further assessment. This will improve the continuity of care for people with mental illnesses and will also help to strengthen interagency cooperation in dealing with this population. The bill was sponsored by Senator Robert Duncan and Representative Jerry Madden, who together with Judge Keller is a member of the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center Board of Directors.

This measure is one of many that Judge Keller and her task force have begun to formulate to increase collaboration among jails, courts, law enforcement, and mental health agencies. The task force includes, among others, legislators, directors of state mental health and correctional agencies, a district attorney, a sheriff, and the governor’s general counsel. Judge Keller established the task force in response to a solicitation that the Justice Center issued seeking proposals from chief justices interested in convening state and local criminal justice and mental health leaders to improve responses to people with mental illnesses involved in the criminal justice system. Nearly half of the country’s state supreme court chief justices applied. Proposals from Texas and six other states (California, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, and Vermont) were funded.

Chief justices from the states and their task forces met last month in Atlanta with national experts who provided technical assistance to identify state-specific opportunities and strategies. The task forces’ strategic plans are scheduled to be completed by early 2008. The Chief Justices’ Criminal Justice/Mental Health Leadership Initiative, which the Justice Center coordinates with the National GAINS Center, is made possible by funding support from the JEHT Foundation and Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. For more information on the initiative, please visit http://consensusproject.org/jli.

The Council of State Governments Justice Center recently unveiled a new resource for policymakers: a website about its Justice Reinvestment Initiative. Through its Justice Reinvestment Initiative, the Justice Center provides intensive technical assistance to policymakers interested in reducing their state's spending on corrections, increasing public safety, and improving conditions in the neighborhoods to which most people released from prison return.

The new website explains how justice reinvestment works. It also provides reports, policy briefs, and maps that the Justice Center has developed as part of its technical assistance to officials in states where bipartisan groups of policymakers are pursuing a justice reinvestment strategy, including Texas, Kansas, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Nevada, and Arizona. These materials summarize the projected growth of the states' prison populations, identify factors driving that growth, and provide maps illustrating how state expenditures overlap and may be concentrated in a handful of neighborhoods.

The Justice Reinvestment Initiative receives funding support through the Public Safety Performance Project, an operating project of the Pew Charitable Trusts; the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA); and the Open Society Institute.

• Kansas policymakers established a $4.5 million grant program to support community corrections programs; grant funds can be utilized to increase access to community behavioral healthcare systems.
  
  
• The Center for Mental Health Services' National Center for Trauma Informed Care (NCTIC) launches a new web site.