[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 139 (Thursday, October 24, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1955]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


  THE MENTALLY ILL OFFENDER TREATMENT AND CRIME REDUCTION ACT OF 2002

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                          HON. TED STRICKLAND

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 24, 2002

  Mr. STRICKLAND. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing The Mentally Ill 
Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act, the companion to a bill 
introduced in the Senate last week by Senators DeWine, Leahy, Grassley, 
Cantwell, Brownback, and Domenici.
  According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, over 16 percent of 
adults incarcerated in U.S. jails and prisons have a mental illness. In 
addition, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 
reports that over 20 percent of youth in the juvenile justice system 
have serious mental health problems, and many more have co-occurring 
mental health and substance abuse disorders. The majority of these 
individuals have illnesses or disorders that are responsive to 
treatment. With access to this care there is great potential to reduce 
the number of mentally ill individuals in adult and juvenile 
corrections facilities and improve public safety.
  In the 106th Congress, Senator DeWine and I successfully passed 
America's Law Enforcement and Mental Health Project (P.L. 106-515), 
which created a Department of Justice grant program assisting State and 
local governments with the establishment of mental health courts. 
Mental health courts provide specialized dockets in non-adversarial 
settings to bring mental health professionals, social workers, public 
defenders and prosecutors together to divert mentally ill offenders 
into a treatment plan. The goal of a mental health court is to expand 
access to mental health treatment, improve the community's response to 
mentally ill offenders, and reduce recidivisim among the mentally ill 
population.
  The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2002 
is phase two of the mental health courts demonstration program and 
represents a significant commitment to solving the problems caused by 
the significant proportion of individuals in our criminal justice 
system who are struggling with mental illness. A main goal of this 
legislation is to facilitate the necessary collaboration across all 
levels of government and among all relevant agencies so that the 
mentally ill receive proper treatment. The bill will create a new 
competitive grants program in the Department of Justice. Criminal 
justice and mental health treatment agencies will be required to apply 
together, compelling the collaboration that is needed to get those who 
are mentally ill and coming in contact with the criminal justice 
system, the mental health and substance abuse treatment, education, job 
training and placement, and housing they need. Grant funds could be 
used for a variety of types of programs, including pre-booking 
diversion, jail treatment/diversion, mental health courts and other 
courts, and transition back into the community.
  The bill also calls for an Interagency Task Force to be established 
at the Federal level. Task Force members will include: the Attorney 
General, the Secretaries of Health and Human Services, Labor, 
Education, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development; and the 
Commissioner of Social Security. The Task Force will be charged with 
identifying ways that Federal departments can respond in a coordinated 
way to the needs of mentally ill adults and juveniles.
  In addition, the bill directs the Attorney General and the Secretary 
of Health and Human Services to develop a list of ``best practices'' 
for criminal justice personnel to use when diverting mentally ill 
offenders from incarceration into treatment.
  Finally, the bill strives to comprehensively address these issues by 
providing grant funds for pre-booking diversion, re-entry programs, and 
community supports such as housing and job-related services. This kind 
of comprehensive approach is the key to ensuring mentally ill 
individuals have the support they need to live healthy lives: public 
safety improves; and our criminal justice system no longer struggles to 
treat an increasingly mentally ill population.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass this bill and 
make our communities safer for all.

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