NIC Advisory Board Hearing Focuses on Mental Illness and Collaboration

Members of the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) Advisory Board convened on November 15 - 16 in Columbus, Ohio to hear testimony from policymakers, practitioners, and other experts regarding people with mental illness under the supervision of the corrections system. NIC's Advisory Board has designated this issue as one of its two priority areas.

As the training and technical assistance arm of of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (an agency within the U.S. Department of Justice), NIC provides federal, state, and local corrections agencies with training, technical assistance, information services, and policy/program development assistance. The Attorney General appoints 16 members to the NIC Advisory Board, which is charged with providing policy direction to the Institute.

Five board members were present at the November 15 - 16 hearing:

• Norman A. Carlson, Chicago City, MN
• Sheriff Michael S. Carona, Orange County, Santa Ana, CA
• Colonel David M. Parrish, Hillsborough County Sheriffs Office, Tampa, FL
• Dr. Reginald Wilkinson, Director, Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, Columbus, OH
• Diane Williams, The Safer Foundation, Chicago, IL

The hearings, which comprised a series of panel discussions, provided board members an opportunity to consider various perspectives on the increasing numbers of people with mental illness in the corrections system and strategies for addressing this problem.

In the first panel, "The Increasing Number of People with Mental Illness Under Corrections Supervision: Origins of the Problem and Key Strategies for Addressing It," speakers set the tone of the hearing, and discussed how collaboration between criminal justice and mental health systems must be at the heart of any effort to improve outcomes for people with mental illness under the supervision of the criminal justice system.

Mike Hogan, Chair of the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, noted that the mental health community has historically responded inadequately to individuals with mental illness transitioning from a corrections setting to the community. Hogan suggested that collaboration between the corrections and mental health systems should include two components: 1) the corrections system should hold the mental health system accountable for the services it provides their shared population; and 2) the corrections system should become advocates for individuals with mental illness under their supervision.

Representatives from federal criminal justice and mental health agencies outlined their respective efforts in the second panel, "Collaboration Among Federal Partners," and discussed plans for NIC--together with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)--to coordinate policy goals around criminal justice / mental health issues and the delivery of technical assistance and funding to sites.

Cheri Nolan, Special Assistant to the Administrator of SAMHSA, echoed the sentiment of other agency representatives regarding the need for collaboration: "We're well aware of the recycling of people in and out of the criminal justice and mental health systems, and when the criminal justice system becomes the primary source of mental health services, it impedes justice processes and complicates individual recovery."

In the third panel, "Case Studies of State and Local Mental Health and Corrections Collaboration," representatives from jurisdictions where the corrections system has worked to improve the response to people with mental illness in jail, prison, or under community supervision outlined their initiatives.

Sheriff Michael Carona spoke about how California's Mentally Ill Offender Crime Reduction (MIOCR) grants required sheriffs to take the lead in collaborating with mental health agencies and other stakeholders: sheriffs were required to apply for the grants offered under this legislation. Carona explained that his experience with the MIOCR grants demonstrated the necessity of collaboration for effectively addressing the needs of this population.

In addition, representatives from programs in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Orange County, Florida, and Kansas presented ways in which their jurisdictions have worked together to achieve common goals and objectives for individuals with mental illness in their criminal justice systems. [To learn about other sites receiving technical assistance through a cooperative agreement between NIC and CSG, please click here]

Finally, mental health advocates and professionals discussed how advocacy organizations, which have historically held different perspectives on criminal justice and mental health issues, are now finding common ground and collaborating with each other. In the fourth panel, "The Role of Family Members, Advocates, and Consumers in Corrections and Mental Health Collaboration," Bill Emmet, Project Director of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD), spoke about the role of advocates in promoting collaboration between the criminal justice and mental health systems:

"The average tenure of a state mental health program director is two to three years. One role of advocates is to provide institutional memory for incoming commissioners. Even though mental health program directors and criminal justice professionals might think advocates are a nuisance, they are absolutely necessary--they can go to the governor, advocate for funding, reach out to the media--this symbiotic relationship is something we can learn from when working with the criminal justice system."

Testimony from speakers and panelists will inform NIC's strategy for delivering training and technical assistance to improve the response to individuals with mental illness in the corrections system. For more information on NIC's efforts to promote collaboration between corrections and mental health systems, please visit http://consensusproject.org/projects/NIC-TA/ and http://www.nicic.org.

For list of other recent Consensus Project features, please click here.