[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 82 (Thursday, June 5, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1161-E1162]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  THE MENTALLY ILL OFFENDER TREATMENT AND CRIME REDUCTION ACT OF 2003

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. TED STRICKLAND

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 5, 2003

  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 today by Senator DeWine.
  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.
  These statistics, however, cannot adequately describe how devastating 
the combination of untreated mental illness and the criminal justice 
system can be for both an individual and the system. Today I had the 
pleasure to meet Tom Lane. Tom, a 43-year-old man who lives in Fort 
Lauderdale, Florida, now works for the National Alliance of the 
Mentally Ill (NAMI) as the Director of the Office of Consumer Affairs. 
However, just a few years ago in July 1997, Tom was suffering from 
severe depression. He was a cabinetmaker who had sustained a head 
injury from a construction accident that caused him to have seizures 
and prevented him from working. When he called a suicide hotline, 
police were dispatched. The officers put him in jail, where he did not 
receive treatment for depression and was not allowed to take his anti-
seizure medication. When he started suffering two seizures a day, he 
was hospitalized. Upon his release from the hospital he still did not 
receive any treatment or recommendation of treatment for his mental 
illness and for days he slept in the bushes outside the hospital. 
Fortunately, Tom was eventually able to contact his family from a pay 
phone and they came to his rescue. Once he began receiving treatment, 
Tom was able to get back on his feet. Today he is a highly functioning, 
highly effective professional advocate for people with mental illness.
  Tom's story illustrates how easy it is for a person with mentally 
illness to become entangled with the criminal justice system. Untreated 
mental illness often leads to behaviors that attract the attention of 
police officers. If a person with mentally illness does not receive 
treatment, his or her condition almost definitely will worsen when they 
are in custody. Generally, the criminal justice system is not equipped 
to identify and ensure people with mentally illness find appropriate 
treatment programs, either through diversion into community treatment 
or within a jail or prison. The bill I am introducing seeks to make 
sure people like Tom Lane don't fall through the cracks. It encourages 
collaboration between the mental health treatment and the criminal 
justice systems. This collaboration is essential for ensuring mentally 
ill offenders are given the treatment they need.
  The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2003 
is phase two of an effort that started in the 106th Congress, when 
Senator DeWine and I successfully passed America's Law Enforcement and 
Mental Health Project (P.L. 106-515). This bill created a Department of 
Justice grant program assisting State and local governments with the 
establishment of mental health courts. Mental health courts--which are 
modeled on drug 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 goals of a mental health court are to expand 
access to mental health treatment, improve the community's response to 
mentally ill offenders, and reduce recidivism among the mentally ill 
population. I am pleased that this program has been incredibly popular.

  The Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2003 
will build on America's Law Enforcement and Mental Health Project by 
providing additional resources for communities that wish to create 
mental health courts. The new bill represents a significant commitment 
to addressing the needs of both the criminal justice system and the 
mentally ill offender population. The bill will create a grants program 
for communities that will provide resources for diversion programs 
across the spectrum of the criminal justice community, including 
prebooking diversion programs like those that have been so successful 
in Los Angeles, California and Memphis, Tennessee. Communities will be 
able to design programs that provide mental health treatment in jails 
and in prisons. And finally, grants will be available for transitional 
or aftercare programs that seek to ensure offenders are provided 
appropriate treatment and care when they transition from jail or prison 
back into the community when they have completed their sentences.
  The bill is intended to give communities much flexibility to design 
and operate the programs they identify as most appropriate for meeting 
their needs, and grant funds will be able to be used for planning, 
establishing a structure, and funding treatment. All successful grant 
applicants will be required to demonstrate collaboration between the 
criminal justice and mental health treatment agencies in a community. 
Too often, mentally ill offenders fall through the cracks because the 
relevant systems in a community do not work together. This lack of 
collaboration is detrimental to both the mentally ill offender as well 
as the stability of the criminal justice system. Therefore, criminal 
justice and mental health treatment agencies will be required to apply 
together for the grants established by the bill, 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 they need. In addition, the bill requires 
that grant applicants ensure mentally ill offenders are connected to 
education, job training and placement, and housing programs.
  In addition, the bill 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 collaboratively 
to the needs of mentally ill adults and juveniles.
  I strongly believe that encouraging collaboration at the Federal, 
State, and local levels of government is essential to ensuring that 
people with mental illness are able to access the mental health 
treatment and other support programs they need.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass this bill and 
make our communities safer for all.

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