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

Summary

The Attorney General can give grants to qualified groups to set up and run a National Criminal Justice and Mental Health Training and Technical Assistance Center. Grants go to national nonprofit groups that have broad experience in mental health, crisis response, criminal justice, law enforcement, training, research, and helping people with mental illness and their families. The center must train law enforcement and many other justice and health workers, focus on de-escalation and suicide prevention, help with diversion, jail/prison strategies, reentry, and dispatch/triage, create a pilot single-entry receiving center for crises, collect data and best practices, build evaluation tools, share proven policies, and provide education and support to people with mental illness and their families. Grantees face audits and other rules to prevent waste. Starting the first fiscal year beginning after December 13, 2016, the Justice Department Inspector General must audit grantees each year. An “unresolved audit finding” means the Inspector General found improper use of funds that is not fixed within 1 year. Grantees with an unresolved audit finding cannot get grants for the 2 fiscal years after that 1-year period. The Attorney General must give priority to applicants without such findings in the prior 3 fiscal years. If a grantee is wrongly paid during its 2-year ban, the Attorney General must deposit the same amount into the General Fund of the Treasury and try to recover the money from the grantee. A “nonprofit agency” means a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt group. Nonprofits that keep money offshore to avoid tax 511(a) cannot get grants. Conference spending over $20,000 in DOJ funds needs prior written approval with a full cost estimate, and the Deputy Attorney General must report approved conference costs yearly. The Attorney General must also send annual certifications and must check for and report any duplicate grants.