SJ receives $6M in mental health, substance abuse funding
RecordJun 18, 2017
The county's project, Homeward Bound, was one of 23 chosen statewide.
Funding for the grants comes from Proposition 47, a voter initiative that reduced certain crimes from felonies to misdemeanors and allocated money saved from incarcerating fewer people to rehabilitation programs.
"It's very significant anytime we can bring state funding to help our community get improved services," she said.
To come up with a plan, a local advisory committee was formed to provide guidance on how the funds should be used. The committee found gaps in the system that needed to be filled to ensure low-level offenders can be successful in their rehabilitation process. Among the suggestions are providing mental health assessments, and sobering and detox services.
According to the county's proposal, the committee saw the biggest barriers to participants' success to be: timely access to substance use disorder treatment, a lack of stable and sober housing, insufficient case management services and a lack of mental health services for those who do not qualify as having a serious mental illness.
"Interviewees expressed frustration at being told they were not 'high risk' enough for services ... ," according to the proposal. "Several admitted to conducting flagrant criminal offenses in order to get arrested and be remanded to treatment services that are otherwise inaccessible."
Homeward Bound, the project proposed by the county, is supposed to create community-based mental health and substance use disorder treatment programs, expand case management services, open a new
Hutchins said
This grant addresses the "issues and not the symptoms," said
"We have invested heavily in jails and prisons and law enforcement, and yet, recidivism in
When communities invest in prevention, intervention, housing, job readiness and other services, there is a decrease in recidivism, he said.
Jordan said when CSJ wrote Proposition 47, they included the reallocation piece to direct money to communities, not to go toward building prisons. He added that he would like to see people with past criminal convictions and who have personal experiences to be a part of the county's planning process -- not just hearing their feedback and stories, but having them involved, he added.
While CSJ did not have a direct role in the grant process, the organization has been heavily involved in
"While the grant itself is significant, ... I think the larger piece is the county itself, the collaboration of the different agencies and the investment they're putting into these issues," Jordan said.
The next step is for the grant to be presented to the
Hutchins said the hope is to see services by the start of 2018.
BHS anticipates that as many as 1,000 people will be served annually by the Homeward Bound program.
"(This grant is a) win for everybody," Jordan said. "It shows the work that's been done in
-- Contact reporter
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