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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | April 23, 2013 08:53 AM |
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| From: | Representative Patrick J. Harkins |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Criminal Justice and Mental Health Reinvestment Act |
| In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation to assist counties in diverting individuals with mental health and substance abuse problems from the criminal justice system. The legislation provides for planning grants and implementation grants, and the program would be administered by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD). This is a companion bill to Senate Bill 128, which was introduced by Senator Greenleaf. This legislation provides three levels of grants: planning, implementation, and expansion. Counties would use planning grants to collaborate with stakeholder organizations, including the criminal and civil justice systems, mental health and substance abuse treatment service providers, and transportation and housing programs. The goal of the strategic collaboration is treating individuals who are in or at risk of entering the criminal justice system in community-based service programs rather than through judicial commitment, all while taking into consideration public safety. This would free up crowded dockets of overburdened courts and help to reduce recidivism, saving money and promoting greater community health and welfare. The implementation and expansion grants would support programs and diversion initiatives including specialized responses by law enforcement agencies; centralized receiving facilities for individuals evidencing behavioral difficulties; post-booking alternatives to incarceration; new court programs, including pretrial services and specialized dockets; specialized diversion programs; intensified transition services that are directed to the designated populations while they are in jail to facilitate the person's transition to the community; specialized probation and parole processes; day-reporting centers; linkages to community-based, evidence-based treatment programs for people who have mental illness or substance abuse problems; community services and programs designed to prevent criminal justice involvement of high-risk populations; and specialized training for criminal justice and treatment services professionals. The legislation further provides for an application process through which counties provide the PCCD with detailed information on the county’s criminal justice system and how it interacts with those with mental health and substance abuse problems. The PCCD would award grants based on available funds and would monitor the programs. Furthermore, counties would have reporting requirements to track their progress. Senator Greenleaf worked with the Council of State Governments (CSG) Justice Center in drafting the original senate bill. The House and Senate Judiciary Committees and their staffs worked with the CSG Justice Center in holding a joint public hearing on June 4, 2007, to hear from CSG Justice Center experts and state officials who had been working the Center. Additionally, the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Courts held a public hearing on this legislation on April 18, 2008. According to the Treatment Advocacy Center, recent studies show that at least 16 percent of inmates in prisons and jails have a serious mental illness – nearly 300,000 people – and that their incarceration is frequently a result of misdemeanor and felony charges resulting from behaviors caused by their illnesses. A similar study from 1983 reported that figure to be only 6.4 percent, which shows a nearly tripling of seriously mentally ill prisoners in just three decades. Treating individuals with mental illness and substance abuse problems without incarceration is an important, sensible, and humane alternative to the status quo and it is an issue that the General Assembly should address. Please join me in supporting this legislation. Copy of legislation attached. |
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