Bill Text: TX SB292 | 2017-2018 | 85th Legislature | Comm Sub
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Relating to the creation of grant programs to reduce recidivism, arrest, and incarceration of individuals with mental illness.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-5)
Status: (Passed) 2017-06-09 - Effective on 9/1/17 [SB292 Detail]
Download: Texas-2017-SB292-Comm_Sub.html
Bill Title: Relating to the creation of grant programs to reduce recidivism, arrest, and incarceration of individuals with mental illness.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 8-5)
Status: (Passed) 2017-06-09 - Effective on 9/1/17 [SB292 Detail]
Download: Texas-2017-SB292-Comm_Sub.html
By: Huffman, et al. | S.B. No. 292 | |
(In the Senate - Filed December 13, 2016; January 30, 2017, | ||
read first time and referred to Committee on Health & Human | ||
Services; April 10, 2017, reported adversely, with favorable | ||
Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 8, Nays 0; | ||
April 10, 2017, sent to printer.) | ||
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 292 | By: Watson |
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relating to the creation of a grant program to reduce recidivism, | ||
arrest, and incarceration of individuals with mental illness. | ||
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
SECTION 1. Subchapter B, Chapter 531, Government Code, is | ||
amended by adding Section 531.0993 to read as follows: | ||
Sec. 531.0993. GRANT PROGRAM TO REDUCE RECIDIVISM, ARREST, | ||
AND INCARCERATION AMONG INDIVIDUALS WITH MENTAL ILLNESS AND TO | ||
REDUCE WAIT TIME FOR FORENSIC COMMITMENT. (a) For purposes of | ||
this section, "low-income household" means a household with a total | ||
income at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty guideline. | ||
(b) Using money appropriated to the commission for that | ||
purpose, each state fiscal year the commission shall make grants to | ||
county-based community collaboratives for the purposes of | ||
reducing: | ||
(1) recidivism by, the frequency of arrests of, and | ||
incarceration of persons with mental illness; and | ||
(2) the total waiting time for forensic commitment of | ||
persons with mental illness to a state hospital. | ||
(c) A community collaborative is eligible to receive a grant | ||
under this section only if the collaborative includes a county, a | ||
local mental health authority that operates in the county, and each | ||
hospital district, if any, located in the county. A community | ||
collaborative may include other local entities designated by the | ||
collaborative's members. | ||
(d) The commission shall condition each grant provided to a | ||
community collaborative under this section on the collaborative | ||
submitting a plan described by Subsection (i) and providing | ||
matching funds from nonstate sources in a total amount at least | ||
equal to the awarded grant amount. To raise matching funds, a | ||
collaborative may seek and receive gifts, grants, or donations from | ||
any person. | ||
(e) Not later than the 30th day of each fiscal year, the | ||
commission shall make available to a community collaborative | ||
established in the most populous county in this state a grant in an | ||
amount equal to the lesser of: | ||
(1) the amount appropriated to the commission for that | ||
fiscal year for a mental health jail diversion pilot program in that | ||
county; or | ||
(2) the collaborative's available matching funds. | ||
(f) The commission shall estimate the number of persons with | ||
serious mental illness in low-income households located in each of | ||
the 20 most populous counties in this state. For the purposes of | ||
distributing grants under this section to community collaboratives | ||
established in the 19 counties other than the most populous county, | ||
for each fiscal year the commission shall determine an amount of | ||
grant money available on a per person basis by dividing the amount | ||
of the grant made available under Subsection (e) by the estimated | ||
total number of persons with serious mental illness in low-income | ||
households located in the most populous county. | ||
(g) Not later than the 60th day of each fiscal year, the | ||
commission shall make available to a community collaborative | ||
established in each of the 19 most populous counties in this state | ||
other than the most populous county a grant in an amount equal to | ||
the lesser of: | ||
(1) an amount determined by multiplying the per person | ||
amount determined under Subsection (f) by the estimated number of | ||
cases of serious mental illness in low-income households in that | ||
county; or | ||
(2) an amount equal to the collaborative's available | ||
matching funds. | ||
(h) To the extent appropriated money remains available to | ||
the commission for that purpose after the commission makes grants | ||
available under Subsections (e) and (g), the commission shall make | ||
available to community collaboratives established in other | ||
counties in this state grants through a competitive request for | ||
proposal process. For purposes of awarding a grant under this | ||
subsection, a collaborative may include adjacent counties if, for | ||
each member county, the collaborative's members include a local | ||
mental health authority that operates in the county and each | ||
hospital district, if any, located in the county. The commission | ||
shall condition a grant awarded under this subsection on the | ||
collaborative submitting a plan described by Subsection (i). | ||
(i) Not later than the 30th day of each fiscal year, the | ||
community collaboratives established in each of the 20 most | ||
populous counties in this state shall submit to the commission a | ||
plan that: | ||
(1) is endorsed by each of the collaborative's member | ||
entities; | ||
(2) identifies a target population; | ||
(3) describes how the grant money and matching funds | ||
will be used; | ||
(4) includes outcome measures to evaluate the success | ||
of the plan; and | ||
(5) describes how the success of the plan in | ||
accordance with the outcome measures would further the state's | ||
interest in the grant program's purposes. | ||
(j) Acceptable uses for the grant money and matching funds | ||
include: | ||
(1) the continuation of a mental health jail diversion | ||
program; | ||
(2) the establishment or expansion of a mental health | ||
jail diversion program; | ||
(3) the establishment of alternatives to competency | ||
restoration in a state hospital, including outpatient competency | ||
restoration, inpatient competency restoration in a setting other | ||
than a state hospital, or jail-based competency restoration; | ||
(4) the provision of assertive community treatment or | ||
forensic assertive community treatment with an outreach component; | ||
(5) the provision of intensive mental health services | ||
and substance abuse treatment not readily available in the county; | ||
(6) the provision of continuity of care services for | ||
an individual being released from a state hospital; | ||
(7) the establishment of interdisciplinary rapid | ||
response teams to reduce law enforcement's involvement with mental | ||
health emergencies; and | ||
(8) the provision of local community hospital, crisis, | ||
respite, or residential beds. | ||
(k) Not later than December 31 following the end of the | ||
fiscal year for which the commission distributes a grant under this | ||
section, each community collaborative that receives a grant shall | ||
prepare and submit a report describing the effect of the grant money | ||
and matching funds in achieving the standard defined by the outcome | ||
measures in the plan submitted under Subsection (h) or (i). | ||
(l) The commission may make inspections of the operation and | ||
provision of mental health services provided by a community | ||
collaborative to ensure state money appropriated for the grant | ||
program is used effectively. | ||
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017. | ||
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