Mary Neal's Sharebook 

Bureau of Justice Assistance Releases Solicitation for Second Chance Act Reentry Court Initiative. Click here to learn more about the Second Chance Act http://nationalreentryresourcecenter.org/about/second-chance-act

On April 14, 2010, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), U.S. Department of Justice, released the solicitation for the BJA FY2010 Second Chance Act Reentry Court Initiative. Funding under this solicitation is available to help state and local government agencies and federally recognized Indian tribes establish state, local, and tribal reentry courts to monitor offenders and provide them with the treatment services necessary to establish a self-sustaining and law-abiding life.

The deadline for applications is 8:00 p.m. ET on June 3, 2010.  Inquiries about the solicitation should be directed to Gary Dennis, senior policy advisor for corrections, at (202) 305-9059 or gary.dennis@usdoj.gov

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), U.S. Department of Justice, previously released a solicitation for mentoring and transition services targeting juveniles returning to the community from correctional facilities. Applications responding to the OJJDP solicitation are due on April 27, 2010.

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MONEY ANSWERS ALL THINGS, AS THE BIBLE SAYS, BUT ONLY WHEN THE MONEY IS WELL SPENT.  NOTHING IS ACCOMPLISHED BY IMPRISONING DRUG ADDICTS AND MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE.  THEY ONLY LEAVE PRISON IN WORSE CONDITION THAN WHEN THEY ARRIVED.  RECIDIVISM IS HIGH AMONG PEOPLE WITH THOSE PROBLEMS.  The Bureau of Justice is right to put resources into jail diversion programs that will save money in the long run by reducing recidivism.  Another way to divert sick people from jail would be to pass congressional bill H.R.619. Rep. Eddie Johnson introduced H.R.619 in Congress in January 2009 to resume Medicaid insurance for mental hospitals to prevent sick people from being jailed in the first place.  Imprisoning the mentally is a terrible waste of taxpayers' money.  No one can be punished into a state of mental health.  Since that insurance was withdrawn in the 1970's, around 1.25 million mentally ill people have landed in the nations prisons, where they suffer cruel incarceration at taxpayers' expense.  It is time to decriminalize mental illness in America and treat mental illness medically, not legally.

Mary Neal
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://www.Care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI
P.O. Box 153, Redan, GA 30074

JAIL IS THE LAST THING THAT MENTAL
PATIENTS NEED, AND TOO OFTEN, IT IS THE VERY LAST THING THEY
EXPERIENCE. Please join our effort to decriminalize mental illness.
No one deserves to be punished for having a disability.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS • SEPTEMBER 23, 2009

HELENA (AP) — The Montana Department of Corrections has received a
two-year, $925,000 federal grant to hire eight probation and parole
officers to help reduce recidivism among Native Americans and
offenders with addictions and mental illness.

Five of the officers will be stationed in Cut Bank, Glasgow, Hardin,
Havre and Polson — near several of the state’s Indian reservations.
The agency said Native Americans have a recidivism rate 33 percent
higher than non-Indian offenders.

The other three officers will be located in Butte, Hamilton and
Livingston and will focus on offenders who have problems with both
mental illness and chemical dependency. An estimated 42 percent of
offenders supervised by the department have both issues.

Ron Alsbury, chief of the department’s Probation and Parole Bureau,
said the U.S. Department of Justice grant will help the agency
provide more personalized attention to those at the highest risk of
committing future crimes. http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20090923/news01/90923011/1002/rss

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This is a positive step toward acknowledging that addicts and mentally ill people cannot be punished into a state of health and wholeness.

Mary Neal
Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/AIMI