This week, the Senate passed S. 1194,  the “Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2003,” by unanimous consent (no Senator objected to the approval of the legislation.)  Senator Mike DeWine (R-OH), Chairman of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Subcommittee of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, sponsored the bill with Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Pete Domenici (R-NM), Charles Grassley (R-IA), and Patrick Leahy (D-VT).  The legislation was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary after passing the Senate.  Representative Ted Strickland has sponsored a companion bill in the House, H.R. 2387, that also was referred to the House Judiciary Committee.  

 

S. 1194 would address the significant number of adults and youth with mental health and substance abuse disorders who are incarcerated or who come into contact with the criminal justice system because of their illness.  States would be eligible to receive grants to plan and implement programs for adult and youthful offenders that would simultaneously promote public safety and public health.  Additionally, States would have the flexibility to create methods for collaboration between the criminal justice, juvenile justice, mental health and substance abuse treatment systems to reduce the number of individuals in adult and juvenile correctional facilities with mental health or co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders.  In general, the planning and implementation grants could be used to create or expand: