Implementation of the National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts' Response to Mental Illness Report and Recommendations
The Task Force made a number of important findings with corresponding recommendations supported by over 100 resources for courts and our partner stakeholders. Each Behavioral Health Alerts revisits an original Task Force resource or a new resource that supports a Task Force recommendation.
Building Relationships to Lead Change As court leaders, it is no secret that we often intentionally or unwittingly seek to address court-related matters from within the walls of our profession and institution. Of course, it’s easiest to draw upon our existing relationships and those individuals who are most familiar to us, but when it comes to leading meaningful change intended to improve the court response to mental health and co-occurring disorders, a cross-sector and community-based approach is necessary. Once stakeholders are identified, the next priority is to turn the most promising contacts into collaborative relationships.
Task Force Recommendations Implementation - Resources and News
New Dates Set for Decriminalizing Mental Illness: The Miami Model These two-day workshops in Miami provide an opportunity to hear directly from Judge Steve Leifman and his colleagues about Miami’s innovations in crisis response, diversion, civil off-ramps, competence to stand trial alternatives, and the effective use of peers. Attendees also visit the model wraparound services facility, the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery. Most importantly, attendees learn how to engage in meaningful system change and leave with a plan to implement new strategies in their jurisdictions. The new dates: October 11-12, November 7-8, and December 5-6. Contact Rick Schwermer to hold a spot for your team at rschwermer@ncsc.org.
Research and Resources
JPLI Newsletter The Judge Stephen S. Goss Memorial Award Winners celebrated in New York City; release of the film Fractured; A New Approach: Alternative Prosecutorial Responses to Violent Crime; and more.
SAMHSA’s GAINS Center Newsletter Q&A with Justin Volpe, Senior Peer Support Coordinator at the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors; California's Occupational Mentor Certification Program: A Peer Specialist Pipeline Out of Incarceration; and Acquired Brain Injury: Challenges and Solutions in Correctional Settings.
Adult Treatment Provider Training Now Available via E-Learning Center Over the past few years, All Rise has partnered with the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) to create and deliver training for substance use disorder treatment providers working with adult participants in treatment courts. The online course provides foundational knowledge needed for treatment providers, particularly clinicians, working within a multidisciplinary treatment court team to strengthen their skills in screening, assessing, diagnosing, and treating justice-involved patients with SUD. Through interactive and application-focused learning experiences, the course focuses on the clinician's role in educating, communicating, and advocating for evidence-based practices in the treatment court setting.
The Deflection Conversation Framework: A Community Engagement Tool for First Responders One of the five critical elements of deflection is the standardization of deflection practices within the first responder agency (Critical Element 3). This element emphasizes the necessity of training to both educate first responders and other deflection personnel on substance use and garner buy-in and support for deflection initiatives. The three-module training is designed to provide first responders and other deflection personnel with the empathetic communication skills they need to effectively engage people who use drugs during deflection interactions and make a positive impact on someone’s journey to recovery. This self-directed e-course was developed for the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Program (COSSUP).
Pew: Most States Already Collect Data That Can Help Improve Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Pew recommends that state officials not only collect data on the measures but also make it publicly available “to create accountability on the effectiveness of the state’s efforts to address the opioid crisis.” Such public reporting of clinical measures has been associated with improving health outcomes. Currently, most of the core Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) treatment measures are included in the federal reporting requirements for at least one Medicaid program.
A Practitioner’s Guide to Evaluating Prosecutor-Led Diversion Programs Assessing the effectiveness of diversion programs can be challenging. Because diversion program participants are generally different from other individuals involved in the criminal legal system, it can be hard to determine whether changes in outcomes are driven by the diversion program itself or participants’ background characteristics. For agencies seeking to assess and document program efficacy, this guide provides an overview of the key data elements, types of study designs, and the questions to consider. Agencies can use the findings from well-designed, rigorous evaluation endeavors to inform major decisions like program operations and how to improve services.
Planning Initiative to Build Bridges to Increase Access to Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Options in the Nation’s Jails Increasing access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) in the nation’s jails—where more than 60 percent of individuals have a substance use disorder—is the goal of the Building Bridges initiative. The Institute for Intergovernmental Research (IIR) is releasing this solicitation for applications on behalf of the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). BJA, in partnership with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, will lead the support for this 9-month planning initiative to help communities develop a comprehensive continuum of care that targets individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) in jails and builds bridges to increase access to treatment both in custody and with community-based MAT providers upon release. Under this solicitation, up to 15 communities will be selected to participate in the planning initiative.
Answering the Call: How Reconfiguration of the Nation’s Mental Health Crisis Call Line Can Facilitate Reimagination of Community Well-Being and Public Safety This Note, using the 988 Lifeline as a central case study, is concerned with the question of what community response in the face of acute behavioral health challenges and severe mental illness can and should look like across the country. This Note advances the argument that though the Lifeline may present a promising infrastructure, to achieve a person-centered, non-carceral, and high-quality system, police officers must be removed from behavioral health response calls. Beginning with a description of the nation’s approach to behavioral health crisis response programs in order to illuminate how we arrived at today’s status quo, and then exploring the shifting and expanding role of police officers in the context of behavioral health crises, this Note uses the Lifeline as a case study for how to implement a nationwide behavioral health response system that operates separate from police officers.
Homeless and Housing Resource Center Newsletter Commemorating the 25th Anniversary of Olmstead; Supporting the Peer Workforce; and Eviction Prevention: Strategies for Supporting Individuals with Serious Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders.
CSG Justice Briefing Improving Youth Justice; Brain Injury Screening in Justice Settings; trends in juvenile justice data; centering equity in behavioral health; and more.
In the News
What a Big New Supreme Court Decision Could Mean for Homeless Americans The Supreme Court has issued its long-awaited ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson, the most significant legal challenge to the rights of homeless people in decades. Leaders from dozens of cities and states — both liberal and conservative — have been hoping the US Supreme Court would overturn the Martin and Grants Pass decisions, which they claimed were incorrectly decided and left governments hamstrung and incapable of safely managing their communities. Many groups representing the rights of unhoused people, in turn, argued there was no reason for the US Supreme Court to reconsider the rulings, and warned that doing so will make it both easier to criminalize people experiencing homelessness and much harder to land them permanent housing later on.
Supreme Court’s Decision to Overrule Chevron Doctrine Set to Impact Behavioral Health Regulations After a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, lower courts will now have more say in behavioral health care regulation. In a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court overruled a 40-year decision known as the Chevron doctrine that required lower courts to defer to federal agencies on the interpretation of unclear statutes. The decision could impact regulations governing Medicaid and Medicare payment rates and insurance coverage of mental health services, according to KFF. In a post-Chevron world, federal agencies can issue regulations interpreting legislation, but courts will decide whether the agencies’ interpretation is lawful.
Oklahoma’s Governor Rejects Landmark Mental Health Competency Restoration Settlement Gov. Kevin Stitt and the state’s commissioner of mental health oppose a proposed settlement that would settle a federal lawsuit. The settlement would guarantee timely and legally-mandated competency restoration to jail inmates. They said it’s unnecessary, too costly, and would divert resources away from other mental health treatment programs. Attorney General Gentner Drummond’s office announced the proposed settlement Monday. He said in a statement that it would strengthen the justice system and allow more timely resolution of court cases. The lawsuit alleges that the agency violated due process rights of pretrial defendants by failing to provide timely court-ordered competency restoration services.
DHHS Opposes Injunction in Jail Mental Health Lawsuit The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services opposes an injunction in a federal lawsuit targeting mental health services for inmates in county jails. The suit labels the situation a “statewide crisis.” Critics contend that inmates languish in county jails for months before getting required services. Affected inmates are admitted to the state’s three psychiatric hospitals through a process known as “incapacity to proceed.” “At present, the demand for ITP assessment and restoration treatment greatly exceeds the available supply in North Carolina,” state Justice Department lawyers wrote in a court filing Monday.
Pueblo County Judge Wrongly Incarcerated Man Awaiting Sanity Evaluation, Supreme Court Rules A Pueblo County judge incorrectly believed he had to put a defendant in jail until medical professionals could evaluate the man’s sanity, the Colorado Supreme Court concluded last week in ordering the release of Mario Arellano from incarceration. [The trial judge] “seemed to treat the term ‘commit’ as necessitating confinement in custody pending forensic evaluation,” the court wrote in an unsigned June 20 order. “While the statutory scheme is hardly a model of clarity, this court concludes that ‘commit’ as used in the foregoing statutes does not mean ‘jail or imprison.’” The justices clarified Arellano cannot be incarcerated solely to facilitate the sanity evaluation if the court has not otherwise revoked his bond.
Gov. Ron DeSantis Signs Off on Maney's Mental Health Reform Bill Known as HB 7021, Mental Health and Substance Abuse, the bill is set to modernize Florida's Baker and Marchman Acts for the first time since they were approved in 1971 and 1993, respectively. Unanimously approved at each stop, DeSantis’ signature sets to introduce modernized standards for involuntary mental health treatment, broaden the definition of licenses for mental health practitioners qualified to provide care, and redefine the responsibilities of county courts to reduce recidivism.
The Revolving Door: A Special to Understand Mental Illness and the Justice System After a year of reporting, this is what was discovered about mental competency and the court system. There are so many cases now where mentally incompetent people come in and out of the court system — passing through a revolving door.
UNT Dallas Pioneers Online Grad Degree in Criminal Justice to Tackle Mental Health Crisis Dallas County Judge Robert W. Francis says that jails and prisons have “effectively become America's largest mental health providers.” University of North Texas (UNT) Dallas’ new online master’s degree in criminal justice takes a forward-thinking approach to education in the field. UNT Dallas said the cutting-edge program will elevate current and future leaders in the criminal justice profession, including law enforcement officers, court and legal professionals, corrections officers, and other public safety practitioners. “I believe this specialization will not only enhance the educational experience for students but also contribute to the broader societal goal of creating a more informed, compassionate, and effective criminal justice system,” said Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot.
Up to $100M Coming for Psychiatric Patient Housing Up to $100 million could soon be poured into building housing for patients recently released from Washington’s state psychiatric hospitals, with the hope that increasing housing supply will stop patients from returning to the criminal justice system. The funds will come from a round of fines that a federal judge imposed on the state’s Department of Social and Health Services in 2023 after the agency failed to comply with a court order to quickly evaluate and treat patients who were waiting for a spot at one of the state’s psychiatric hospitals. “It just became very clear that the thing missing was big capital projects to increase housing capacity,” said Kim Mosolf, the class counsel in the court case.
US Judge Finds California in Contempt Over Prison Mental Health Staffing A federal judge has found top California prison officials in civil contempt for failing to hire enough mental health professionals to adequately treat tens of thousands of incarcerated people with serious mental disorders. Chief U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller on June 25 ordered the state to pay $112 million in fines at a time when the state is trying to close a multibillion-dollar budget deficit. The fines have been accumulating since April 2023 after Mueller said she was fed up with the state prison system’s inadequate staffing despite years of court orders demanding the state address the issue.
Wellbeing
Relieving Juror Stress: Strategies for Courts Are you curious about how stress affects jurors and their decision-making process? This NCSC video explores the common causes of juror stress and provides actionable strategies for courts to manage it effectively. Learn how well-designed jury summons, flexible scheduling, and supportive courtroom environments can significantly reduce stress for jurors. Discover best practices for managing difficult evidence, conducting fair deliberations, and providing post-trial support.
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