§10479 Mental Health Responses in the Judicial System

Summary

The Attorney General can give money to states, local governments, territories, Indian Tribes, and eligible nonprofits to create or expand programs that find and help people with mental illness in the criminal justice system. The grants can pay for pretrial screening and supervision, mental health and criminal-history checks, risk assessments, follow-up for those who can’t meet release conditions, program evaluation, reminders for court dates, reporting to mental health partners, and data needed to assess risk. Grants can also help set up behavioral health screening systems that use proven tools, match people to the right services, decide who needs more or less supervision, and let criminal justice and health leaders plan together. Grant money can cover program staff, equipment, payments to approved treatment providers (including aftercare, job training, and alcohol/drug treatment). Federal funds must add to, not replace, other funds, and the federal share may not be more than 50 percent of project costs. Applicants must send an application to the Attorney General. The Attorney General will try to spread grants fairly across all States and different kinds of places (rural, urban, Tribal, etc.). Each grantee must send yearly reports and evaluations. The Justice Department’s Inspector General will audit grantees starting with the first fiscal year after December 13, 2016. Grantees with unresolved audit problems can’t get grants for 2 fiscal years. Priority goes to applicants without unresolved audit findings in the prior 3 years. Nonprofits must be 501(c)(3)s, can’t use offshore accounts to dodge certain taxes, and must explain how they set pay for top staff. No more than $20,000 can be spent on a conference unless the Deputy Attorney General approves in writing with a full cost estimate, and those approvals are reported to Congress. The Attorney General must also check for duplicate grants and report any duplicates to Congress.