LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES ELIGIBLE FOR BJA FY 2010
JUSTICE AND MENTAL HEALTH COLLABORATION PROGRAM GRANTS

The Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), U.S. Department of Justice, has released its fiscal year 2010 solicitation for the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP) grant applications. The program was authorized by the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004 (MIOTCRA) and reauthorized by the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Reauthorization and Improvement Act of 2008 and promotes coordination among criminal justice, juvenile justice, mental health, and substance abuse agencies.

The deadline for applications is April 8, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Applicants should demonstrate a commitment to increasing public safety through innovative cross-system collaborations that improve responses to people with mental illnesses who come into contact with the criminal justice system. Eligible applicants include states, units of local government (including law enforcement agencies), American Indian tribes, and tribal organizations.

Specialized policing responses to people with mental illnesses are a key component of a comprehensive community approach to safer and more effective criminal justice responses, yet law enforcement agencies have been underrepresented in previous years among grant applicants.  Law enforcement agencies and their mental health partners should review the grant information to evaluate if this might be an opportunity to plan, implement, or enhance a collaborative law enforcement / mental health program. Applications must demonstrate that the proposed project will be administered jointly by a unit of government with responsibility for criminal or juvenile justice activities and a mental health agency.

Visit the BJA website to download the applicant eligibility requirements, instructions on registering for the online grant application system, and other application materials. Two webinars will be held on February 17th and March 10th to provide an overview of the JMHCP solicitation for potential applicants. For more information on these webinars, click here.

Resources:  For information about past law enforcement-based JMHCP grantees, including Allegheny County, Penn., and Philadelphia’s RESPONDS Coalition, please search the Consensus Project’s Local Programs Database.  Agencies with law enforcement-based programs that are not in the database are invited to register and enter their program information by creating a new user login and following the instructions for adding agency examples.

To learn more about specialized law enforcement-based programs, the Consensus Project Law Enforcement website provides access to several free resources, including Law Enforcement Responses to People with Mental Illnesses: A Guide to Research-Informed Policy and Practice and Improving Responses to People with Mental Illnesses: The Essential Elements of a Specialized Law Enforcement-Based Program, which was developed through a partnership between the Justice Center and the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) with support from BJA. 

Other key resources for the field include the following:

• University of Memphis CIT Center in partnership with NAMI
• 2009 IACP National Policy Summit on “Building Safer Communities: Improving Police Responses to Persons with Mental Illness” (Full report coming soon)
• Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office publication Police Response to People with Mental Illness: Specialized Approaches by Gary Cordner
• National GAINS Center publications, developed with PERF, including A Guide to Implementing Police-Based Diversion Programs for People with Mental Illness and Enhancing Success of Police-Based Diversion Programs for People with Mental Illness 
• National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Crisis Intervention Team Resource Center

For assistance with requirements of the solicitation, contact Rebecca Rose, BJA Policy Advisor, at (202) 514-0726 or by e-mail at Rebecca.Rose@usdoj.gov.