Improving Reentry for Adults with Co-occurring Substance Use & Mental Health Disorders (FY 2019)

The Improving Reentry for Adults with Co-occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Illness Program improves provision of services to offenders with co-occurring substance abuse and mental illness (CSAMI) when they leave incarceration to reenter the community, which in turn will help to reduce recidivism and promote public safety. Specifically, its goal is to improve access to and delivery of standardized screening and assessment, collaborative comprehensive case management, and pre- and post-release programming for returning inmates that address criminogenic risk and needs, including treatment and services that address mental illness and substance abuse.

Goals and Objectives

Goals

• The purpose of the program is to enhance corrections systems’ ability to address the needs of offenders with co-occurring substance abuse and mental illness in order to reduce recidivism, and to improve public safety and public health. 

Objectives

The objectives of this program are to:

• Standardize screening processes for mental illness and substance abuse using a validated tool for all offenders entering a correctional facility (e.g., booking, intake, or classification).
• Provide assessments for mental illness and substance abuse prior to a person’s release from a corrections facility.
• Provide evidence-based pre- and post-release mental illness and substance abuse treatment and cognitive behavioral interventions to address criminogenic risk factors.
• Develop collaborative comprehensive case plans that incorporate information from the criminogenic risk assessment and mental illness and substance abuse assessments.
• Create a performance measurement plan that outlines who is responsible for data collection, input, and analysis, including identifying and working with a third party evaluator.

For more information, see the most recent BJA grant solicitation and materials.