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“THE MENTALLY ILL OFFENDER TREATMENT AND CRIME REDUCTION ACT OF 2002” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1955 on Oct. 24, 2002.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
THE MENTALLY ILL OFFENDER TREATMENT AND CRIME REDUCTION ACT OF 2002
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HON. TED STRICKLAND
of ohio
in the house of representatives
Thursday, October 24, 2002
Mr. STRICKLAND. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act, the companion to a bill introduced in the Senate last week by Senators DeWine, Leahy, Grassley, Cantwell, Brownback, and Domenici.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, over 16 percent of adults incarcerated in U.S. jails and prisons have a mental illness. In addition, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention reports that over 20 percent of youth in the juvenile justice system have serious mental health problems, and many more have co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders. The majority of these individuals have illnesses or disorders that are responsive to treatment. With access to this care there is great potential to reduce the number of mentally ill individuals in adult and juvenile corrections facilities and improve public safety.
In the 106th Congress, Senator DeWine and I successfully passed America's Law Enforcement and Mental Health Project (P.L. 106-515), which created a Department of Justice grant program assisting State and local governments with the establishment of mental health courts. Mental health courts provide specialized dockets in non-adversarial settings to bring mental health professionals, social workers, public defenders and prosecutors together to divert mentally ill offenders into a treatment plan. The goal of a mental health court is to expand access to mental health treatment, improve the community's response to mentally ill offenders, and reduce recidivisim among the mentally ill population.
The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2002 is phase two of the mental health courts demonstration program and represents a significant commitment to solving the problems caused by the significant proportion of individuals in our criminal justice system who are struggling with mental illness. A main goal of this legislation is to facilitate the necessary collaboration across all levels of government and among all relevant agencies so that the mentally ill receive proper treatment. The bill will create a new competitive grants program in the Department of Justice. Criminal justice and mental health treatment agencies will be required to apply together, compelling the collaboration that is needed to get those who are mentally ill and coming in contact with the criminal justice system, the mental health and substance abuse treatment, education, job training and placement, and housing they need. Grant funds could be used for a variety of types of programs, including pre-booking diversion, jail treatment/diversion, mental health courts and other courts, and transition back into the community.
The bill also calls for an Interagency Task Force to be established at the Federal level. Task Force members will include: the Attorney General, the Secretaries of Health and Human Services, Labor, Education, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development; and the Commissioner of Social Security. The Task Force will be charged with identifying ways that Federal departments can respond in a coordinated way to the needs of mentally ill adults and juveniles.
In addition, the bill directs the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop a list of ``best practices'' for criminal justice personnel to use when diverting mentally ill offenders from incarceration into treatment.
Finally, the bill strives to comprehensively address these issues by providing grant funds for pre-booking diversion, re-entry programs, and community supports such as housing and job-related services. This kind of comprehensive approach is the key to ensuring mentally ill individuals have the support they need to live healthy lives: public safety improves; and our criminal justice system no longer struggles to treat an increasingly mentally ill population.
I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass this bill and make our communities safer for all.
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