In August, CSG Justice Center staff assisted agency leaders as they convened the first meeting of the Act 423 Interagency Task Force, hosted a Technical Assistance Day for counties selected to receive funds to establish Crisis Stabilization Units, and held the first meeting of the County Planning and Data Collection Issue-Specific Team. In addition, on August 18, Arkansas received approval for its initial subaward request to fund the immediate needs of a JRI Coordinator position with the Governor’s Office and programming changes to Arkansas Community Corrections’ (ACC) electronic offender management system. These funds will allow ACC’s IT vendor to complete changes necessary for the rollout of the agency’s new violation response policy effective October 1, 2017.
CSG Justice Center staff assisted the Governor’s Office and Legislators in preparing the agenda for the first convening of the Interagency Task Force meeting. The Task Force was established by Act to oversee implementation, the and it is comprised of 17 state leaders from all three branches of government appointed by the Governor, President Pro Tempore of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and principles of the state agencies impacted by the legislation. During the first meeting, the Task Force voted to establish a Chair of the Task Force and approved the proposed overall oversight structure for implementation, which includes a Core Implementation Team and six issue-specific teams focusing on specific areas of policy implementation that will report up to the Task Force. Agencies also provided updates on implementation activities to date and preparation for the October 1 effective date of Act 423.
During the Interagency Task Force meeting, Governor’s Office officials also announced that the Governor will commit an additional $1.4 million to operate a fourth crisis stabilization unit (CSU) location in Arkansas. Act 423 allowed for the creation of CSUs to divert individuals arrested for non-violent offenses who are experiencing a mental health crisis from jail and connect them to services and treatment. Governor Hutchinson included $5 million in his proposed budget for FY2018 to operate three such units. But after the state received four strong applications from counties proposing to operate the CSUs, the Governor requested additional funds for a fourth site. This brings the state’s total reinvestment to $6.4 million.
Two weeks following the announcement of the four county CSU locations, CSG Justice Center staff assisted the Division of Behavioral Health Services (DBHS) and Governor’s Office with facilitating a Technical Assistance Day to provide guidance to the four counties on setting up the CSUs set to begin operating late fall 2017. CSG Justice Center staff facilitated alongside DBHS leaders to review the scope of work requirements in the agreements that the counties will enter into with DBHS to operate the sites. The Governor and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair gave opening remarks to the group of 50 attendees. CSG Justice Center staff also met with the Governor to brief him on progress with planning for launching the four CSUs.
As a follow-up to the Technical Assistance Day, CSG Justice Center staff have continued to assist DBHS with facilitating weekly calls with representatives from the four counties to check in on progress and answer questions as county leaders develop their plans. CSG Justice Center staff also arranged a peer-to-peer call with representatives of Johnson County, KS, involved with running the county’s regional crisis stabilization unit who shared information on their data collection processes and provided other advice and suggestions on how to effectively provide oversight to the counties.
CSG Justice Center staff assisted state leaders in developing a workplan and convening the first meeting of the County Planning and Data Collection Issue-Specific Team. During this meeting, the Team began planning for components of Act 423 intended to improve the collection of behavioral health information at the county level and better connect individuals with mental illness to needed treatment by coordinating around the adoption of jail screening instruments, data capture and retention, and appropriate sharing of mental health flags among law enforcement. The team discussed plans to select and provide training to counties on using a mental health screening tool at jail intake to collect information on individuals who may have mental health needs. The team also discussed piloting a criminogenic risk tool in Pulaski County that could later be rolled out to additional counties.
Lastly, CSG Justice Center assisted ACC staff with planning for a second subaward request to meet time-sensitive needs, which was submitted to BJA on August 28. The request includes on-site training and curricula needs for the staff of ACC’s technical violator programs, which must undergo major changes to implement new administrative sanctions as mandated by Act 423. To further enhance their programming strategy for the new population of technical violators they will serve, CSG Justice Center staff assisted ACC leaders with requesting funding from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) to receive training from the University of Cincinnati on skill-building and role play techniques. Based on observations conducted by CSG Justice Center staff in July of ACC’s residential group sessions, there was a lack of skill-building and role play incorporated into their curricula needed to effectively foster positive behavior change with group participants. The additional training from UCCI will help fill this gap in current and future residential programming by ensuring staff are incorporating these critical techniques into their facilitation.
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• 8/9 –Meeting with ACC Program Management Administrator, ACC Research and Evaluation Manager and ACC Assistant Director for Residential Services to discuss implementation and progress on preparing the second subaward application.
• 8/9 –Meeting with ACC Director and ACC Chief Deputy Director to discuss implementation technical assistance needs to prepare for the October 1 effective date of Act 423.
• 8/9 – Meeting with Act 423 Interagency Task Force Chair, Criminal Justice Policy Advisor (Governor’s Office), and JRI Coordinator (Governor’s Office) to discuss the agenda for the first Interagency Task Force Meeting.
• 8/10 – First meeting of the Interagency Task Force to discuss the implementation oversight structure for Act 423, announce plans to provide additional funding to operate crisis stabilization units in all four counties that applied to receive funding instead of three as originally planned.
• 8/10 - Meeting with the Governor and JRI Coordinator (Governor's Office) to debrief the Governor on the Interagency Task Force meeting and discuss implementation planning for the crisis stabilization units.
• Meeting with DBHS Procurement Manager, DBHS Accounting and Budget Manager, DBHS, JRI Coordinator (Governor’s Office), DBHS Assistant Clinical Director for Adult Services, DBHS Assistant Director for Policy and Research, DBHS Assistant Director for Quality Assurance, and DBHS Clinical Manager to prepare for Crisis Stabilization Unit Technical Assistance Training with county stakeholders
• Meeting with JRI Coordinator (Governor’s Office), DBHS Assistant Clinical Director for Adult Services; DBHS Assistant Director for Quality Assurance, and DBHS Clinical Manager to prepare for Crisis Stabilization Unit Technical Assistance Training with county stakeholders
• Implementation planning meeting with approximately 50 multi-agency representatives from each of the four catchment areas, the Governor, Senate Judiciary Committee Chair, DHS and DBHS agency staff .
• Briefing on CSU implementation planning with the Governor, JRI Coordinator (Governor’s Office)
• Meeting with County Planning and Data Collection Issue-Specific Team including AAC Chief Counsel, ASA Executive Director, Craighead County Sheriff, AAC Program Management Administrator, ACIC Administrator, DBHS Assistant Director for Quality Assurance, DBHS Assistant Clinical Director for Adult Services, Executive Director (Mid-South Health Systems), Executive Director (Arkansas Association of Prosecuting Attorneys), AOC Legal Services Director, AOC Drug Court Coordinator, Pulaski County Chief Deputy County Attorney, APDC Executive Director to begin planning for planning for components of Act 423 intended to improve the collection of behavioral health information at the county level and better connect individuals with mental illness to needed treatment through the adoption of jail screening instruments, statewide data capture and retention, and appropriate sharing of mental health flags among law enforcement
• 8/3 - Call with APB Executive Administrator, ACC Program Management Administrator, ADC Public Information Officer, ADC Research and Planning Administrator, JRI Coordinator (Governor's Office), and ADC Mental Health Administrator to discuss subaward needs for automating the parole guidelines and risk assessment tool in Arkansas's offender management system (eOMIS).
• 8/4 – ACC Program Management Administrator, ACC Assistant Director for Residential Treatment, ACC), ACC Research and Evaluation Administrator, and JRI Coordinator (Governor's Office) to check in on progress with the second subaward application using the new guidance materials released by BJA.
• 8/4 - Call with DBHS Assistant Director for Adult Services, DHS Procurement Manager, DBHS Assistant Director for Quality Assurance, JRI Coordinator (Governor's Office), and DBHS Accounting and Budget Manager to check in on planning for a Technical Assistance day for counties selected to operate three crisis stabilization units and to review progress on drafting terms of the agreement that DBHS will hold with the counties.
• 8/4 - Call with APB Executive Administrator to discuss the parole guidelines and subaward needs.
• 8/9 - Call with APB Chairman, APB Executive Administrator, and seven parole board staff to discuss the parole guidelines and countervail factors.
• 8/11 - Call with DBHS Assistant Director for Adult Services, DHS Procurement Manager, and DBHS Accounting and Budget Manager to discuss planning for a Technical Assistance day for counties selected to operate crisis stabilization units and to review progress on drafting terms of the agreement that DBHS will hold with the counties.
• 8/15 - Call with Executive Administrator (Arkansas Parole Board) to discuss plans for submitting a subaward request to automate the new parole decision-making guidelines in development into the state's electronic offender management system, eOMIS, in order to ensure consistency in decision-making and enable tracking of decisional data.
• 8/16 - Call with DBHS Assistant Director for Adult Services, DBHS), DHS Procurement Manager, DBHS Accounting and Budget Manager, DBHS Assistant Director for Policy and Research, DBHS Assistant Director for Quality Assurance, and JRI Coordinator (Governor's Office) to discuss the completion of the agreement scope of work to review during the Technical Assistance Day for the four counties selected to operate crisis stabilization units.
• 8/18 - Call with DBHS Assistant Director for Adult Services, DHS Procurement Manager, DBHS Accounting and Budget Manager, DBHS Assistant Director for Policy and Research, DBHS Assistant Director for Quality Assurance, DBHS Research Project Assistant, and JRI Coordinator (Governor's Office) to discuss the completion of the agreement scope of work for counties operating crisis stabilization units and plans for the Technical Assistance Day for selected counties.
• 8/21 - Call with DBHS Assistant Director for Adult Services, DHS Procurement Manager, DBHS Accounting and Budget Manager, DBHS Assistant Director for Policy and Research, DBHS Assistant Director for Quality Assurance, and JRI Coordinator (Governor's Office) to finalize the agreement scope of work for county crisis stabilization units (CSU) and discuss preparation for the upcoming Technical Assistance day for four counties selected to operate the CSUs.
• 8/23 - Call with AAC Chief Legal Counsel to discuss the workplan and agenda for the first meeting of the County Planning and Data Collection Issue-Specific Team.
• 8/25 - Call with DBHS Assistant Director for Adult Services, DBHS Assistant Director for Quality Assurance, JRI Coordinator (Governor's Office) and representatives from the four counties selected to operate crisis stabilization units to discuss progress with implementation planning, answer questions and concerns from counties and share resources across counties.
• 8/25 - Call with ACC Director, ACC Chief Deputy Director, and Board Member and Chair of the Re-entry Committee (Board of Corrections) to discuss options for conducting programming assessments on Arkansas's correctional programs.
• 8/28 - Call with DBHS Assistant Director for Adult Services, DBHS Assistant Director for Quality Assurance, DBHS Research Project Analyst, Pulanski County Chief Deputy County Attorney, Criminal Justice Coordinator (Johnson County Manager’s Office), Emergency Services Community Liaison (Johnson County Mental Health), Crisis Case Manager (Johnson County Mental Health), and Outcomes Consultant (Wyandot, Inc.), during which the Johnson County team shared information on processes for collecting data on crisis stabilization units (CSUs) usage and other suggestions for how to effectively provide oversight to counties operating CSUs.
• 8/31 - Call with DBHS Assistant Director for Adult Services, DBHS Assistant Director for Quality Assurance, and JRI Coordinator (Governor's Office) to discuss the agenda for the upcoming weekly implementation call with counties to check in on progress and provide guidance for preparing to launch four crisis stabilization units.
Arkansas Matters: Arkansas to Open Four Regional Mental Health Crisis Centers
https://csgjusticecenter.org/jr/arkansas/media-clips/arkansas-to-open-f…
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