Registration Now Available for Mental Health Courts and Beyond Conference
Registration is now available for the conference,
Mental Health Courts and Beyond: Improving the Response to People with Mental Illness in the Criminal Justice System. The conference, which is being organized by the Council of State Governments (CSG), technical assistance provider for the Bureau of Justice Assistance's (BJA)
Mental Health Courts Program, will be held in Los Angeles on June 21 and 22, 2005.
Attendance is by invitation only; all mental health courts listed in the
National Survey of Mental Health Courts will be invited. Invitations were sent out on March 3, 2005. If you have questions or concerns regarding an invitation, please contact
Denise Tomasini, 212-482-2320 X 17.
Click here to enter the conference's registration portal.
The conference will be geared towards mental health courts, but will also address broader issues of people with mental illness in contact with criminal courts. It will be open to BJA grantee and non-grantee mental health courts alike, as well as select court-based diversion programs. Grantees' expenses will be covered under their BJA grant. Representatives of non-grantee courts whose applications are approved will be reimbursed for up to $1,000 in travel and hotel expenses. No more than two court representatives per program will receive scholarships. To learn more about the scholarship application process,
click here.
Because of the high number of mental health courts and court-based programs invited, jurisdictions will be asked to limit the number of attendees to four.
Judges are strongly encouraged to attend.
The conference will include information geared for both experienced and newer courts. Specifically, the conference will seek to enable courts to:
- Improve their programs design and operation
- Learn about methods, in addition to mental health courts, to improve outcomes for people with mental illness in the criminal justice system
- Gain exposure to recent research
- Acquire familiarity with available resources, including technical assistance (TA) from CSG
- Exchange ideas and tools, including court forms and manuals.
Click here to view a preliminary agenda for the conference.
For information on last year's conference, click here.
