U.S. Rep. Rich Nugent is urging his House colleagues to join him in pushing for the Mental Health Collaboration Act of 2013.
This legislation would reauthorize the highly successful Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act, legislation that provides important support to the criminal justice and mental health fields.
“During my 37 years as a law enforcement officer, the last ten as the Sheriff of Hernando County, FL, time and time again I saw the sad reality that our jails have become a place to warehouse people with severe mental health needs,” the Republican who represents a large portion of The Villages wrote recently to his Congressional colleagues. “My experience is not unique. For example, according to data compiled by the Florida Mental Health Institute, over a five year period, ninety-seven individuals in Miami-Dade County accounted for 2,200 bookings in the county jail, 27,000 days in the jail and 13,000 days in crisis units, state hospitals and emergency rooms. The cost to the state and local taxpayers was nearly $13 million.”
Nugent argues that prevention and treatment can dramatically reduce those rates.
“In Pinellas County, for example, a mental health jail diversion program showed an 87 percent reduction in re-arrests for the nearly 3,000 offenders who were enrolled,” Nugent said.
Since its first authorization in 2004, the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act has helped get these individuals out of the criminal justice system and into treatment. The Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Act would improve outcomes for the criminal justice system, the mental health system, and for those with mental health conditions by:
• Extending the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act (MIOTCRA) for five years, thus continuing support for mental health courts and crisis intervention teams;
• Authorizing investments in veterans treatment courts, which serve arrested veterans who suffer from PTSD, substance addiction, and other mental health conditions;
• Increasing focus on corrections-based programs, such as transitional services that reduce recidivism rates and screening practices that identify inmates with mental health conditions; and
• Supporting the development of curricula for police academies and orientations.
