§10652 National Criminal Justice and Mental Health Training and Technical Assistance

Summary

The Attorney General can give grants to a national nonprofit to create a National Criminal Justice and Mental Health Training and Technical Assistance Center. The eligible nonprofit must have nationwide experience in mental health, crisis response, criminal justice and law enforcement, training, research, and support for people with mental illness and their families. The Center must train law enforcement and many justice and health agencies on de-escalation and crisis response; provide education and help on diversion, jail/prison practices, reentry, dispatch and triage, and suicide prevention; run pilot single-entry receiving centers for crisis assessment and placement; collect data and best practices; make evaluation tools; share those practices widely; and offer education and support to people with mental illness and their families. Starting in the first fiscal year beginning after December 13, 2016, the Justice Department’s Inspector General must audit grantees each year to prevent waste and abuse. An “unresolved audit finding” means a bad use of grant money not fixed within 1 year of the final audit report. Grantees with an unresolved finding cannot get grants for the 2 fiscal years after that 1-year period, and applicants without unresolved findings in the prior 3 fiscal years get priority. If a grant is wrongly given during a prohibited period, the Attorney General must put the same amount into the Treasury’s General Fund and try to get it back from the grantee. Grants go only to tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofits and not to nonprofits that keep money offshore to avoid the tax in section 511(a). Winning nonprofits that use special pay-reasonableness procedures must explain how they set officer and key employee pay in their application, and the Attorney General may make that information public on request. No DOJ funds can be used for a conference costing more than $20,000 without written approval from the agency head, and that approval must include a full cost estimate; the Deputy Attorney General must report approved conference spending each year to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees. The Attorney General must also annually certify to the Senate and House Judiciary and Appropriations Committees that audits were completed and reviewed, required exclusions were issued, reimbursements were made, and list any grantees excluded. Before awarding a grant, the Attorney General must check for duplicate funding and must report to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees if duplicate grants were given, listing amounts and reasons.