Criminal Justice and Mental Health in Tennessee

Criminal Justice and Mental Health Projects

Criminal Justice/Mental Health Advisory Committee

The Advisory Committee was established in November of 2000 to continue the work of the Task Force. The Advisory Committee is responsible for the oversight and implementation of the Task Force recommendations. It monitors how the two systems are progressing toward interacting productively and serves in an advisory capacity for the criminal justice and mental health system. The Advisory Committee operates within the Tennessee Mental Health Planning and Policy Council. Members represent mental health and criminal justice systems, family, consumers and advocates.

A juvenile Justice work group was established as a subcommittee of the Advisory Committee to assess the status of the State’s juvenile justice and mental health systems. The work group is comprised of stakeholders from programs that work specifically with children and youth.

Criminal Justice/Mental Health Liaison Projects
In July of 2000 the Division of Mental Health Services established eight Criminal Justice/Mental Health Liaison pilot projects. Currently there are 16 CJ/MH liaisons providing services in 21 counties across the state and training activities statewide. Contact information for the CJ/MH liaisons can be found here.

The CJ/MH Liaison Project is a community project that examines the issues affecting adults with serious mental illness who are involved in the criminal justice system. The purpose of the project is to facilitate communication/coordination between the community, the criminal justice and the mental health systems to achieve common goals; to support the establishment of services that would promote diversion activities; and provide liaison activities for adults with serious mental illness who are incarcerated or at risk of incarceration. The success of the projects depends greatly on community support and the willingness of communities to work collaboratively to improve the functioning of the criminal justice and mental health service delivery systems.

The CJ/MH Liaison responsibilities include:

• Examining the issues affecting adults with mental illness who are incarcerated or who are at risk of becoming incarcerated;
• Facilitating communication/co-ordination between the criminal justice system, the mental health system, and the community;
• To provide liaison and case management activities for adults with a mental illness and who are involved in the criminal justice system.
• Training activities that include training with Tennessee Correctional Institute staff and regional training on mental health crisis management for sheriff personnel and alternative transporting agents.

Shelby County Mental Health Services Pretrial Diversion
The Shelby County Mental Health Services Pretrial Diversion grant was established to provide staff to supervise and perform the activities of release coordinator on behalf of adults with serious mental illness who have been arrested.

Activities of the release coordinator include early identification, community resource builder (housing), and linkage to community resources, follow-up services, and pretrial diversion activities with the courts and public defenders office.

Tennessee Mental Health and Criminal Justice Training Program
The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities applied for and received Edward R. Byrne grant funds to develop a mental health/criminal justice curriculum. This four-year curriculum development and training program for mental health and criminal justice personnel will result in a reduction in the criminalization of mental illness in the State of Tennessee.

The Tennessee Mental Health and Criminal Justice Training Program has developed interdisciplinary training that provides an overview of mental illness. Curricula are targeted to the specific roles of personnel in the criminal justice and the mental health systems.

The training program provides comprehensive training, free of charge, across the spectrum of professionals and constituencies involved in both the mental health and criminal justice systems.

Training modules are available on this website.

Surveys
As a part of the Tennessee Mental Health and Criminal Justice Training Program’s requirement to establish baseline of data concerning the number of adults with mental illness incarcerated in county jails. Two surveys have been completed. The first survey was completed in February of 2003 and the follow-up was completed in January of 2004. Both of the surveys are available at this website………

The Juvenile Justice work group, a subcommittee of the Criminal Justice/Mental Health Advisory Committee, has conducted a survey of the state’s Juvenile Justice Detention Centers, Temporary Holding Centers, and other secure facilities. This report is available and can be found here: http://www.state.tn.us/mental/cj/jjmhreport061104.pdf