Executive Summary

Plan Required. The Department of Corrections (DOC) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) are required by Maine Public Law 2004, Chapter 711, Section A-23, to submit this joint plan of action to the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety of the 122nd Maine Legislature. The plan addresses the needs of people with mental illness who are involved in the criminal justice system. The two departments worked closely with the many stakeholders—including the Maine Sheriff’s Association, the Maine Association of Jail Administrators, and six ad hoc work groups—as they gathered ideas and developed recommendations for the plan.

Underpinnings. A look at relevant facts and studies nationally and from Maine reveals that addressing the needs of people with mental illness involved in the criminal justice system is challenging not only here in Maine, but also throughout the entire county. National and Maine perspectives and evidence-based approaches constitute the underpinnings of the plan. 

Goals and Strategies. The plan’s overarching goal is to prevent people with mental illness from repeatedly cycling in and out of the criminal justice system. Working toward the following principal goals will move the State of Maine closer to stopping this revolving door for people with mental illness:
Goal 1. Divert people with mental illness, when appropriate, from the criminal justice system in the first place.
Goal 2. Improve mental health services for people with mental illness who are involved in the criminal justice system.
Goal 3. Improve transition re-entry planning from prison or jail.
Goal 4. Foster mutual responsibility for meeting the needs of people with mental illness who are involved in the criminal justice system, while at the same time ensuring public and community safety.
Goal 5. Ensure that there are consistent, effective mental health services for the mutual clients of Riverview Psychiatric Center and DOC.

In carrying out these goals, DOC and DHHS will use the following strategies. Whenever possible, the departments will:
* Use evidence-based approaches and programs.
* Base decisions on today’s fiscal realities, recognizing the need to consolidate and achieve efficiencies while improving services.
* Actively collaborate and work across jurisdictions, systems, and disciplines.
* Encourage family members, friends, and community-based organizations that are not providers to help address the needs of people with mental  illness who are involved in the criminal justice system.
* Involve consumers and advocates in carrying out these goals.

Action Steps. The joint plan of action includes 11 multi-part action steps, summarized as follows:

Goal 1: Diversion

Action Step 1: Diversion. DOC and DHHS will support and encourage the counties to build on diversion mechanisms that currently are being used, as well as to develop additional mechanisms. The departments support both pre-booking and post-booking diversion mechanisms. 

Goal 2. Mental Health Services

Action Step 2: Basic Services. DOC and DHHS will work with county jails to ensure that people with mental illness or co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders receive appropriate, basic behavioral health services.  

Action Step 3: Addressing More Complex Needs. DHHS and DOC will establish a Forensic Treatment Team to plan for and find appropriate services for the relatively small group of high-risk, high profile people with mental illness who have particularly complex needs. The Team will have the capacity to mobilize very quickly to resolve crisis situations that occur either in the community or in jail. The departments also will work with a few of the county jails to create specialized jail space and staffing tailored to address the specific complex needs of this group of people.

Action Step 4: Purchasing Medications and Services. DHHS and DOC will work with the jails to encourage collective purchases of medications, psychiatric services, and medical services.  

Action Step 5: Community Hospitals. DHHS and DOC will work with community hospitals to address their concerns relating to emergency services, inpatient psychiatric care, and general medical care for people with mental illness who are involved in the criminal justice system.  

Goal 3: Transition Re-Entry Planning

Action Step 6. Re-Entry Planning. DOC and DHHS will encourage and support DOC correctional facilities and county jails to begin re-entry planning as soon as possible after a person is booked. The departments will continue to support existing local collaborative planning efforts that focus on county jail inmates with mental illness or co-occurring disorders, and will recommend similar efforts in counties where this is not yet happening.  

Goal 4: Mutual Responsibility

Action Step 7: Memorandum of Understanding. DOC and DHHS will enter into a memorandum of understanding spelling out how they will collaborate on the implementation of the action steps in the joint plan of action. 

Action Step 8: Joint Standards and Protocols. DHHS and DOC will develop and implement joint standards and protocols to guide planning for and treatment of people with mental illness who are involved in the criminal justice system. In implementing this action step, the departments will make sure that state level standards and protocols are flexible enough to allow for local strategies that are responsive to local issues.  

Action Step 9: Training. DOC and DHHS will collaborate with the Maine Criminal Justice Academy and NAMI-Maine to develop and deliver a curriculum to help professionals better meet the needs of people with mental illness in the criminal justice system. Whenever possible and practicable, the departments will share training resources and will use videoconferencing for training and consultation activities.

Action Step 10: Measuring Effectiveness. DOC and DHHS will design and implement an evaluation process to measure the effectiveness of interventions specified in these action steps.

Goal 5: Mutual Clients of Riverview Psychiatric Center (RPC) and DOC

Action Step 11: RPC and DOC. RPC and DOC will enter into a memorandum of agreement describing a number of steps that will ensure that there are consistent, effective mental health services for their mutual clients.
 
Next Steps. The next steps by DOC and DHHS will be to develop an implementation timeline, analyze the cost of implementing the action steps, present a resource reallocation plan for implementing the action steps, and finalize a memorandum of understanding to guide the implementation of the action steps.

This draft (dated 12/7/04) is for discussion purposes only.
It does not necessarily reflect the position of the Baldacci Administration.








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