New Resources Available to States Exploring Strategies
to Connect People with Mental Illness Released from
Prison and Jail to Medicaid
May 25, 2005 - New resources to help policymakers address soaring corrections and correctional health care costs and reduce recidivism among people with mental illness were released today by the Council of State Governments (CSG).
Download these documents in PDF form by clicking on the titles below.
Press Release (PDF)
How and Why Enrollment in Medicaid Matters for People with Serious Mental Illness Released from Jail (2 pages)
Ensuring Timely Access to Medicaid and SSI/SSDI for People with Mental Illness Released from Prison: Four State Case Studies
Like every state, were spending extraordinary amounts of money to treat people with serious illnesses while they are incarcerated, said Texas State Sen. John Whitmire, who participated on a multi-agency state team that contributed to the documents. We squander those investments when we dont ensure people continue their treatment plans when they return to the community.
The new documents profile efforts in four statesTexas, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and New Yorkto promote continuity of care for this population by ensuring their prompt enrollment in Medicaid and SSI/SSDI upon release. Support for the development of the documents was provided by the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a division of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and by the MacArthur Foundation.
These reports are the latest of a series of resources made available through the Re-Entry Policy Council and the Criminal Justice / Mental Health Consensus Projectnational initiatives coordinated by CSG. For more information, visit the website of the Re-Entry Policy Council (
www.reentrypolicy.org) or contact:
Katherine Brown, Policy Analyst
Re-Entry Policy Council, Council of State Governments
t. 212-482-2320 / kbrown@csg.org
