home Rural Community Toolbox: Funding & Tools to Build Healthy Drug-Free Rural Communities

About This Site  |  Contact

This funding record is inactive. Please see the program website or contact the program sponsor to determine if this program is currently accepting applications or will open again in the future.

Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP)

Link

https://bja.ojp.gov/funding/opportunities/bja-2020-17114

Additional Links

Notice of Funding Opportunity (Grants.gov)

Deadline

Application Deadline: May 18, 2020

Sponsoring Organization

Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)

Purpose

Supports law enforcement and behavioral health provider partnerships to improve responses and outcomes for individuals with mental illnesses or co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse who come into contact with the justice system. Provides social services and other programs designed to improve interactions between law enforcement and those with mental illness (MI) or co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse (CMISA) in hopes of increasing the safety and and reducing violence.

Eligible organizations may apply for funding under three purpose areas:

Purpose Area 1: Embedding Clinicians in Law Enforcement Agencies

  • Embeds social workers and/or mental health professionals in law enforcement agencies to help officers effectively encounter people in mental health crisis

Purpose Area 2: Support for Mental Health Centers

  • Provides funding for operational expenses to centers that serve individuals with severe mental health needs who are at risk of recidivism
  • Services offered can include crisis care, residential treatment, outpatient mental health and primary care services, and community reentry supports

Purpose Area 3: Mitigating Threats of Targeted Violence

  • Allows mental health professionals and threat assessment experts to help state and local prosecutors/investigators in identifying and disrupting individuals mobilizing toward violence

Funds can be used to plan and implement activities to establish or expand:

  • Programs to support cooperation between public safety officials and service providers to help individuals with MI or CMISA by connecting them to treatment and social services
  • Mental health courts or other court-based programs
  • Specialized programs to train public safety officials and mental health providers in appropriate responses to individuals with MI or CMISA
  • Programs to enhance cooperation between state and local governments in order to better support individuals with MI or CMISA

Amount of Funding

Award ceiling: Up to $750,000
Project period: 36 months
Estimated number of awards: Up to 25
Estimated total program funding: $19,000,000

Applicants must provide matching funds for a portion of the project. Generally an award may not exceed 80% of the total project cost in years one and two. Awards may not exceed 60% of the total project cost in year three.

Who Can Apply

Eligible applicants include:

  • States
  • Units of local government
  • Federally recognized Indian tribal governments

Program-specific priority for funding is given to applicants who plan to:

  • Promote effective strategies by law enforcement to identify and reduce the risk of harm to individuals with MI or CMISA and to public safety
  • Promote effective strategies for identification and treatment of female offenders with MI and CMISA
  • Promote effective strategies to expand the use of mental health courts and related services
  • Propose interventions that have been shown by empirical evidence to reduce recidivism
  • Use validated assessment tools to target offenders with a moderate or high risk of recidivism and a need for treatment services as appropriate
  • Propose to establish a multidisciplinary local working group consisting of law enforcement, prosecutors, mental health professionals, threat assessment professionals, intervention teams, subject matter experts, and community groups to detect and mitigate local threats of violence

Policy priority funding is given to applications for Purpose Area 1, to federally recognized Indian tribes, and to applicants who propose to address challenges in rural communities, benefit individuals in high-poverty areas or persistent-poverty counties, and enhance public safety in economically distressed communities or Qualified Opportunity Zones.

To receive Purpose Area 1 priority consideration, applicants must agree to one or more of the following award conditions:

  • A state or local government entity that operates at least one correctional facility agrees to cooperate with federal law enforcement, as detailed in Appendix B.
  • A state or local government entity agrees to noninterference with federal law enforcement, as detailed in Appendix C.
  • A state or local government entity agrees to nondisclosure of federal law enforcement information, as detailed in Appendix D.

To receive a rural priority consideration, applicants must describe:

  • What makes the geographic service area rural using U.S. Census Bureau or other appropriate government data
  • How isolated that area is from needed services
  • How they will address specific public safety challenges in rural communities

To receive a poverty priority consideration, applicants provide information to demonstrate that the individuals who are intended to benefit from the requested grant reside in high-poverty areas or persistent poverty counties.

For this funding opportunity, high-poverty areas are described as any census tract with a poverty rate of at least 20%, as measured by the 2013-2017 5-year data series from the American Community Survey. Persistent poverty counties are described as any county that has had 20% or more of its population living in poverty over the past 30 years, as measured by the 1990 and 2000 decennial censuses and the most recent Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates.

To receive a priority consideration for a Qualified Opportunity Zone, applicants must include information that specifies how the project will enhance public safety in a specified Qualified Opportunity Zone.

Geographic Coverage

Nationwide

What This Program Funds

Capacity Building • New Program • Operating Costs and Staffing • Training Providers

Application Process

Application instructions, requirements, and other information about the online application process can be found in the funding announcement.

Responding to the 2020 Solicitation for the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program webinar recording and slides

Contact

For programmatic and technical questions:
National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) Response Center
800-851-3420
TTY at 301-240-6310
grants@ncjrs.gov
Live chat

Rural Awards

Past awards communities received in fiscal year (FY) 2019 are described on the program website.

Rural communities who have received Category 1 funding include:

Rural communities who have received Category 3 funding include:

Topics This Program Addresses

Community Planning and Coalition Building • Community Supervision • Crime Reduction • Healthcare Workforce • Justice System • Mental Health • Social Services • Substance Use Disorder • Treatment • Violence, Trauma, and Abuse