The term “applicant” means States, units of local government, Indian tribes, and tribal organizations that apply for a grant under this section.
The term “criminal or juvenile justice agency” means an agency of a State or local government or its contracted agency that is responsible for detection, arrest, enforcement, prosecution, defense, adjudication, incarceration, probation, or parole relating to the violation of the criminal laws of that State or local government.
The terms “diversion” and “alternative prosecution and sentencing” mean the appropriate use of effective mental health treatment alternatives to juvenile justice or criminal justice system institutional placements for preliminarily qualified offenders.
In this paragraph, the term “appropriate use” includes the discretion of the judge or supervising authority, the leveraging of graduated sanctions to encourage compliance with treatment, and law enforcement diversion, including crisis intervention teams.
In this paragraph, the term “graduated sanctions” means an accountability-based graduated series of sanctions (including incentives, treatments, and services) applicable to mentally ill offenders within both the juvenile and adult justice system to hold individuals accountable for their actions and to protect communities by providing appropriate sanctions for inducing law-abiding behavior and preventing subsequent involvement in the criminal justice system.
The term “mental health agency” means an agency of a State or local government or its contracted agency that is responsible for mental health services or co-occurring mental health and substance abuse services.
The term “mental health court” means a judicial program that meets the requirements of subchapter XXI of this chapter.
The term “nonviolent offense” means an offense that does not have as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another or is not a felony that by its nature involves a substantial risk that physical force against the person or property of another may be used in the course of committing the offense.
The term “unit of local government” means any city, county, township, town, borough, parish, village, or other general purpose political subdivision of a State, including a State court, local court, or a governmental agency located within a city, county, township, town, borough, parish, or village.
The Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary, may award nonrenewable grants to eligible applicants to prepare a comprehensive plan for and implement an adult or juvenile collaboration program, which targets preliminarily qualified offenders in order to promote public safety and public health.
To receive a planning grant or an implementation grant, the joint applicants shall prepare and submit a single application to the Attorney General at such time, in such manner, and containing such information as the Attorney General and the Secretary shall reasonably require. An application under subchapter XXI of this chapter may be made in conjunction with an application under this section.
The Attorney General and the Secretary shall develop a procedure under which applicants may apply at the same time and in a single application for a planning grant and an implementation grant, with receipt of the implementation grant conditioned on successful completion of the activities funded by the planning grant.
The joint applicants may apply to the Attorney General for a nonrenewable planning grant to develop a collaboration program.
The Attorney General and the Secretary may not approve a planning grant unless the application for the grant includes or provides, at a minimum, for a budget and a budget justification, a description of the outcome measures that will be used to measure the effectiveness of the program in promoting public safety and public health, the activities proposed (including the provision of substance abuse treatment services, where appropriate) and a schedule for completion of such activities, and the personnel necessary to complete such activities.
A planning grant shall be effective for a period of 1 year, beginning on the first day of the month in which the planning grant is made. Applicants may not receive more than 1 such planning grant.
Up to 5 percent of all planning funds shall be used to foster collaboration between State and local governments in furtherance of the purposes set forth in the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004.
Joint applicants that have prepared a planning grant application may apply to the Attorney General for approval of a nonrenewable implementation grant to develop a collaboration program.
Recipients of an implementation grant may use grant funds to assist mentally ill offenders compliant with the program in seeking housing or employment assistance.
Applicants for an implementation grant shall strive to ensure prompt access to defense counsel by criminal defendants with mental illness who are facing charges that would trigger a constitutional right to counsel.
Applicants for an implementation grant shall describe how the adult or juvenile collaboration program relates to existing State criminal or juvenile justice and mental health plans and programs.
Funds may be used to create or expand existing mental health courts that meet program requirements established by the Attorney General under subchapter XXI of this chapter, other court-based programs, or diversion and alternative prosecution and sentencing programs (including crisis intervention teams, treatment accountability services for communities, and training for State and local prosecutors relating to diversion programming and implementation) that meet requirements established by the Attorney General and the Secretary.
Funds may be used to create or expand programs that promote public safety by providing the services described in subparagraph (C)(ii) to preliminarily qualified offenders.
Funds may be used to promote and provide mental health treatment and transitional services for those incarcerated or for transitional re-entry programs for those released from any penal or correctional institution.
Funds may be used to develop, promote, and implement comprehensive suicide prevention programs and services for incarcerated individuals that include ongoing risk assessment.
Funds may be used to support, administer, or develop treatment capacity and increase access to mental health care and substance use disorder services for preliminary qualified offenders and individuals who are released from any penal or correctional institution.
Funds may be used to support the efforts of State and local governments to implement and expand the integration of the 988 universal telephone number designated for the purpose of the national suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline system under section 251(e)(4) of title 47, including by hiring staff to support the implementation and expansion.
The Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary, shall ensure that planning and implementation grants are equitably distributed among the geographical regions of the United States and between urban and rural populations.
The Attorney General and the Secretary shall establish an interagency task force with the Secretaries of Housing and Urban Development, Labor, Education, and Veterans Affairs and the Commissioner of Social Security, or their designees.
The Attorney General shall use not less than 8 percent of funds appropriated to provide technical assistance to State and local governments receiving grants under this subchapter to foster collaboration between such governments in furtherance of the purposes set forth in section 3 of the Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act of 2004 (34 U.S.C. 10651 note).
To provide for programs that offer law enforcement personnel specialized and comprehensive training in procedures to identify and respond appropriately to incidents in which the unique needs of individuals with mental illnesses are involved, including the training developed under section 10653 of this title.
To provide for the development of specialized receiving centers to assess individuals in the custody of law enforcement personnel for suicide risk and mental health and substance abuse treatment needs.
To provide for computerized information systems (or to improve existing systems) to provide timely information to law enforcement personnel and criminal justice system personnel to improve the response of such respective personnel to mentally ill offenders.
To provide for the establishment and expansion of cooperative efforts by criminal and juvenile justice agencies and mental health agencies to promote public safety through the use of effective intervention with respect to mentally ill offenders.
To provide for programs that offer campus security personnel training in procedures to identify and respond appropriately to incidents in which the unique needs of individuals with mental illnesses are involved.
To provide support for academy curricula, law enforcement officer orientation programs, continuing education training, and other programs that teach law enforcement personnel how to identify and respond to incidents involving persons with mental health disorders or co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders.
For purposes of paragraph (1)(A), the Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance shall develop training models for training law enforcement personnel in procedures to identify and respond appropriately to incidents in which the unique needs of individuals with mental illnesses are involved, including suicide prevention.
The Federal share of funds for a program funded by a grant received under this subsection may not exceed 50 percent of the costs of the program. The non-Federal share of payments made for such a program may be made in cash or in-kind fairly evaluated, including planned equipment or services.
The Attorney General, in awarding grants under this subsection, shall give priority to programs that law enforcement personnel and members of the mental health and substance abuse professions develop and administer cooperatively.
The term “peer-to-peer services or programs” means services or programs that connect qualified veterans with other veterans for the purpose of providing support and mentorship to assist qualified veterans in obtaining treatment, recovery, stabilization, or rehabilitation.
The Attorney General may make grants to States, units of local government, territories, Indian Tribes, nonprofit agencies, or any combination thereof, to develop, implement, or expand Assertive Community Treatment initiatives to develop forensic assertive community treatment (referred to in this subsection as “FACT”) programs that provide high intensity services in the community for individuals with mental illness with involvement in the criminal justice system to prevent future incarcerations.
Grants made under this subsection shall be used to supplement, and not supplant, non-Federal funds that would otherwise be available for programs described in this subsection.
To request a grant under this subsection, a State, unit of local government, territory, Indian Tribe, or nonprofit agency shall submit an application to the Attorney General in such form and containing such information as the Attorney General may reasonably require.
In this subsection, the term “eligible entity” means a State, unit of local government, Indian tribe, or tribal organization.
The Attorney General may make grants under this subsection to an eligible entity for sequential intercept mapping and implementation in accordance with paragraph (3).
The term “correctional facility” means a jail, prison, or other detention facility used to house people who have been arrested, detained, held, or convicted by a criminal justice agency or a court.
In this paragraph, the term “unresolved audit finding” means a finding in the final audit report of the Inspector General of the Department of Justice that the audited grantee has utilized grant funds for an unauthorized expenditure or otherwise unallowable cost that is not closed or resolved within 12 months from the date when the final audit report is issued.
Beginning in the first fiscal year beginning after December 13, 2016, and in each fiscal year thereafter, the Inspector General of the Department of Justice shall conduct audits of recipients of grants under this section to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse of funds by grantees. The Inspector General shall determine the appropriate number of grantees to be audited each year.
A recipient of grant funds under this section that is found to have an unresolved audit finding shall not be eligible to receive grant funds under this section during the first 2 fiscal years beginning after the end of the 12-month period described in subparagraph (A).
In awarding grants under this section, the Attorney General shall give priority to eligible applicants that did not have an unresolved audit finding during the 3 fiscal years before submitting an application for a grant under this section.
For purposes of this paragraph and the grant programs under this subchapter, the term “nonprofit organization” means an organization that is described in section 501(c)(3) of title 26 and is exempt from taxation under section 501(a) of such title.
The Attorney General may not award a grant under this subchapter to a nonprofit organization that holds money in offshore accounts for the purpose of avoiding paying the tax described in section 511(a) of title 26.
Each nonprofit organization that is awarded a grant under this section and uses the procedures prescribed in regulations to create a rebuttable presumption of reasonableness for the compensation of its officers, directors, trustees, and key employees, shall disclose to the Attorney General, in the application for the grant, the process for determining such compensation, including the independent persons involved in reviewing and approving such compensation, the comparability data used, and contemporaneous substantiation of the deliberation and decision. Upon request, the Attorney General shall make the information disclosed under this subparagraph available for public inspection.
No amounts made available to the Department of Justice under this section may be used by the Attorney General, or by any individual or entity awarded discretionary funds through a cooperative agreement under this section, to host or support any expenditure for conferences that uses more than $20,000 in funds made available by the Department of Justice, unless the head of the relevant agency or department, provides prior written authorization that the funds may be expended to host the conference.
Written approval under subparagraph (A) shall include a written estimate of all costs associated with the conference, including the cost of all food, beverages, audio-visual equipment, honoraria for speakers, and entertainment.
The Deputy Attorney General shall submit an annual report to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives on all conference expenditures approved under this paragraph.
Before the Attorney General awards a grant to an applicant under this section, the Attorney General shall compare potential grant awards with other grants awarded under this Act to determine if duplicate grant awards are awarded for the same purpose.
There is authorized to be appropriated to the Department of Justice to carry out this section $54,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2023 through 2027.
For fiscal year 2009 and each subsequent fiscal year, of the amounts authorized under paragraph (1) for such fiscal year, the Attorney General may obligate not more than 3 percent for the administrative expenses of the Attorney General in carrying out this section for such fiscal year.