Mental Health Courts

Representatives from the CSG Justice Center delivered a series of presentations at the Stepping Up Alabama Summit. The summit convened community mental health center staff; sheriffs and their staff; and county commissioners to kick off the latest round of grant funding for Stepping Up from the Alabama Department of Mental Health.

Plenary 1: Brain Injury and the Criminal Legal System: Recommendations and Initiatives from the Bureau of Justice Administration

This virtual site visit was initially planned to be done over one day (four hours) but due to some unexpected discussion during the initial visit, it was decided that the first half would be done on April 26, 2024, and the second half would be done in August 2024. This second half of the site visit focused on a presentation about risk-need-responsivity and risk assessment by CSG Justice Center Senior Policy Advisor for State Initiatives David D'Amora. The grantee and TA coach also discussed the grantee's ongoing plans to rescope their grant.

Provide ongoing assistance and support to grantees under the Upholding the Rule of Law & Preventing Wrongful Convictions program (both FY21 and FY22 grantees) through direct consultations and feedback, as well as connecting grantees to each other for more general and global assistance.

Provide ongoing assistance and support to grantees under the Upholding the Rule of Law & Preventing Wrongful Convictions program through direct consultations and feedback, as well as connecting grantees to each other for more general and global assistance. We did not do any in-person visits this term, and met with the following grantees regularly:

As defined in the grant deliverables, the NTCRC will convene virtual regional meetings with BJA grantees. The subject of these meetings is to be determined, but planning for this deliverable is continuing.

On May 9, IIR hosted a PCoP webinar on mental health diversion that featured Ms. Hallie Fader-Towe from the Counsel of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center; Tulsa County, Oklahoma, District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler; Executive Director and Founder Kristine Hamann with the Prosecutors’ Center for Excellence; and Diversion Manager Nicole Buccellato and Reentry Director Teresa Fuller with the Pinal County, Arizona, Attorney’s Office.

As defined in the grant deliverables, the NTCRC will convene learning communities for treatment court practitioners. Due to high demand, two learning community cohorts have been established. Sessions will be held quarterly from January 2025 to September 2025. Individual teams were invited to apply to a learning community focused on data collection.

This virtual site visit was initially planned to be done over 1 day (4 hours) but due to some unexpected discussion during the visit, it was decided that half of the visit would be done today and the second half would be done at a later date. The initial purpose of the site visit was to help the grantee develop and organize processes and procedures around developing a new court structure for the JMHCP grant, gain knowledge about risk assessment and clinical assessment best practices and the risk-need-responsivity model, and strategize how to increase referrals for the project.

During this half-day site visit, the TA coach and other CSG Justice Center staff met with the grantee to discuss the JMHCP project goals, successes, and challenges to better understand the grantee’s ongoing TA needs, understand how the Consolidated Misdemeanor Problem-Solving (CMPS) court fits into the continuum of services for people with behavioral health needs in Pima County, observe the county Jail Population Review meeting, and visit the jail Transition Center to better understand services available to court participants.