Did You Know…

The CMHS National GAINS Center has provided technical assistance to 40 Targeted Capacity Expansion (TCE) and Jail Diversion and Trauma Recover grantee sites in 29 states. These grantees were funded by the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration’s Center for Mental Health Services between 2002-2008. GAINS Center staff have help guide these jail diversion grantees in infrastructure development, organizing and assessing how their mental health and criminal justice systems interact with persons with mental illness, and providing expert advice and guidance on sustainability. To read more about the CMHS National GAINS Center Jail Diversion activities, visit The National GAINS Center.

What’s Happening in Your Community

The state of Oklahoma, in collaboration with the Department of Corrections (DOC), has used Transformation State Incentive Grant funding to increase the states efforts to expand and improve jail diversion services for persons with mental illness. The state has increased the number of mental health courts by 10, launched a new Veteran’s court in Tulsa County, and increased the courts’ overall capacity from 75 to 325. In addition, mental health professionals have been placed in three DOC prisons to provide re-entry planning for persons with mental illness, and the state has established re-entry intensive care coordination teams at four community mental health centers in Oklahoma City and Tulsa to facilitate community reintegration of offenders with mental illnesses.  

Announcements

SAMHSA Newsletter Highlights the GAINS Center and Jail Diversion Programs more...

NAMI 2009 Report Card on Mental Health more...  

Pew Center on the States Releases One in 31 more...

More Resources from GAINS

GAINS EBP Fact Sheet on Supportive Housing

Research shows that a one-size-fits-all approach to housing for persons with mental illness who are justice involved will not work. What works in housing for most persons with mental illness may be different from what works for those who are justice involved—particularly those individuals released from jail and prison to the community and placed under correctional supervision. The CMHS National GAINS Center has developed a fact sheet that identifies how communities can move toward evidence-based housing for person with mental illness that have a history of justice involvement. This fact sheet was originally developed in 2005 based on the output of an Expert Panel convened by the National GAINS Center evidence-based housing programs. The Center has recently updated the fact sheet to reflect areas in which substantial progress have been made in the past few years. The Moving Toward Evidence-based Housing Programs for Persons with Mental Illness in Contact with the Justice System can be found at the GAINS Center resources page.  

Developing a Comprehensive Plan for Mental Health
and Criminal Justice Collaboration

The CMHS National GAINS Center has made available an update of the Sequential Intercept Model.  The Sequential Intercept provides a conceptual framework for communities to consider the interface between the criminal justice and mental health systems as they address concerns about criminalization of people with mental illness in their jurisdiction. The model envisions a series of “points of interception” where an intervention can be made in criminal justice processing that will prevent individuals with mental illness from entering or penetrating deeper into the criminal justice system. Ideally, most people will be intercepted at earlier levels, with decreasing numbers at each subsequent level. Five points of interception are specified in the model: (1) Law enforcement/emergency services; (2) Initial detention/initial hearings; (3) Jail, courts, forensic evaluations, and forensic commitments; (4) Reentry from jails, state prisons, and forensic hospitalization; and (5) Community corrections and community support. Visit the National GAINS Center to download a copy of the updated Sequential Intercept Model.

What’s Upcoming

Conferences

6/29-7/2 – USPRA - National Conference, Norfolk, VA more...

7/6-9 – NAMI - National Convention, San Francisco, CA more…

7/12-13 – National Commission on Correctional Health Care – Correctional Mental Health Seminar, Seattle, WA more...

7/29-30 – National Alliance on Ending Homelessness – Annual Conference,
Washington, DC more...

Webinars/Teleconferences

7/15 – National Institute of Corrections Webinar on the Mentally Ill in Jail more...