In September, CSG Justice Center staff continued to assist state and county leaders with planning to operate four crisis stabilization units (CSUs); adopt screening tools at the county level to collect behavioral health and risk information; develop parole decision-making guidelines; and prepare for the October 1 effective date of new violation response policies.
CSG Justice Center staff assisted the Division of Behavioral Health Services (DBHS) and the Governor’s Office as they hosted weekly technical assistance calls with the four counties selected to operate CSUs. Call topics included planning to meet data collection requirements on CSU utilization, identifying roles and responsibilities within counties for CSU oversight; and plans for certifying law enforcement officers in Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training, enabling them to refer individuals experiencing a behavioral health crisis to a CSU. CSG Justice Center staff also assisted DBHS and the Governor’s Office with reviewing and providing feedback to counties on submitted project plans that outline how each county will meet the requirements of DBHS’s agreement scope of work and other state regulations.
CSG Justice Center staff assisted the Arkansas Association of Counties (AAC) with convening the second meeting of the County Planning and Data Collection Issue-Specific team. The team voted to approve the recommendation of the Mental Health Council of Arkansas for county jails to adopt the Community Mental Health Screening (CMHS) tool to screen individuals for possible mental health needs, and discussed plans for training county jail personnel on the tool. The team also discussed next steps for selecting a substance abuse screening tool, plans to pilot a crimongenic risk tool in Pulaski County, and developing a flagging mechanism in Arkansas’s statewide jail database to notify law enforcement when they encounter an individual who was screened by a county jail as having a mental health need.
CSG Justice Center staff continued working with the Parole Board to complete the development of parole guidelines. CSG Justice Center staff worked with the Parole Board to finalize the core decision-making factors, and discussed parole guideline definitions, countervail factors, and parole hearings.
Finally, CSG Justice Center staff supported Arkansas Community Corrections with preparing for the October 1 effective date of 90 and 180-day sanctions to a technical violator center (TVC) for more severe violations of probation and parole. To help prepare ACC for an increased demand for limited residential beds, CSG Justice Center staff compiled historical data on the monthly volume of low, medium, and high-level violations and the number of individuals who will become eligible to receive a TVC sanction on October 1 based on ACC’s point system. CSG Justice Center also discussed with ACC research and field staff how they will manage bed capacity and prioritize TVC sanctions through ongoing staff training and supervisory review and approval of sanction recommendations.
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• Meeting with DBHS Assistant Director for Adult Services, DBHS Assistant Director for Quality Assurance, JRI Coordinator (Governor’s Office), DBHS Clinical Manager, DBHS Assistant Director for Policy and Research, DBHS Procurement Manager, DBHS Accounting and Budget Manager to review and evaluate project plans submitted by four counties detailing how they will operate crisis stabilization units in accordance with DBHS regulations.
• Meeting with DBHS Assistant Director for Quality Assurance, JRI Coordinator (Governor’s Office), DBHS Assistant Director for Adult Services and data and technology representatives from the four counties selected to operate crisis stabilization units (CSU) to provide technical assistance on planning to collect data and report outcomes on CSU utilization.
• 9/1: CSU Weekly Technical Assistance Call with DBHS Assistant Director for Adult Services, DBHS Assistance Director for Quality Assurance, JRI Coordinator (Governor’s Office) and representatives from the four counties selected for crisis stabilization unit sites to share updates on implementation planning.
• 9/5: Call with Parole Board Executive Administrator to discuss the automation of the parole guidelines and the guidelines intersection with the ARORA-PRI which is ADC’s risk tool.
• 9/6: Call with DBHS Assistant Director for Adult Services, DBHS Assistance Director for Quality Assurance, JRI Coordinator (Governor’s Office) , and DBHS Clinical Manager to discuss plans for reviewing project plans submitted by counties selecting for four crisis stabilization unit sites and to discuss the agenda for the upcoming weekly technical assistance call with counties.
• 9/8: CSU Weekly Technical Assistance Call with DBHS Assistant Director for Adult Services, DBHS Assistance Director for Quality Assurance, JRI Coordinator (Governor’s Office) and representatives from the four counties that will be operating crisis stabilization units to share implementation updates and discuss plans for collecting data on CSU utilization.
• 9/11: Meeting with DBHS Assistant Director for Adult Services, JRI Coordinator (Governor’s Office) , and CLEST Director to discuss CIT training plans for law enforcement officers.
• 9/12: Call with ADC Research and Planning Administrator, ADC Software Support Analyst, and ADC Public Information Officer to discuss data monitoring plans and review updates to ADC's monthly metrics tracking spreadsheet.
• 9/13: Call with DBHS Assistant Director for Quality Assurance, DBHS Research Project Assistant, and representatives from the four crisis stabilization unit counties to discuss plans and answer questions about expectations for collecting and reporting data to the state on CSU utilization metrics.
• 9/13: Call with AAC Legal Counsel, ACC Research and Evaluation Administrator, ACC Research and Evaluation Administrator, and ACC Information Systems Coordinator to discuss data monitoring plans and review updates to ACC's monthly metrics tracking spreadsheet.
• 9/14: Call with AAC Chief Counsel to discuss plans for an upcoming County Planning and Data Collection Issue-Specific Team meeting.
• 9/14: Call with DBHS Assistant Director for Adult Services, DBHS Assistance Director for Quality Assurance, JRI Coordinator (Governor’s Office) , and DBHS Clinical Manager to discuss technical assistance planning for the four counties that will be operating crisis stabilization units.
• 9/14: Call with JRI Coordinator (Governor’s Office) to discuss scheduling issue-specific team meetings and the next Interagency Task Force meeting in December.
• 9/14: Call with Parole Board Executive Administrator, and ACC Research and Evaluation Administrator to discuss plans to submit a subaward request to automate the parole guidelines and risk assessment tool into Arkansas's offender management system, eOMIS.
• 9/18: County Planning and Data Collection Issue-Specific Team meeting with AAC Legal Counsel, ACC 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, ASA Outgoing Executive Director, ASA Incoming Executive Director, and JRI Coordinator (Governor’s Office) to discuss plans for selecting and adopting screening tools for county jails and developing a flagging tool in ACIC's statewide jail database to notify law enforcement of individuals with a mental health need.
• 9/19: Call with DBHS Assistant Director for Quality Assurance to discuss technical assistance to counties on collecting and reporting data on the crisis stabilization units.
• 9/19: Call with Parole Board Executive Administrator to discuss planning next steps for the parole guidelines.
• 9/20: Call with APB Chairman, APB Executive Administratorand seven parole board staff to discuss the parole guideline definitions, countervail factors, and parole hearings.
• 9/22: CSU Weekly Technical Assistance Call with DBHS Assistant Director for Adult Services, DBHS Assistance Director for Quality Assurance, JRI Coordinator (Governor’s Office) and representatives from the four counties that will be operating crisis stabilization units to share implementation updates and plans for CIT officer training.
• 9/25: Call with DBHS Assistant Director for Adult Services, JRI Coordinator (Governor’s Office) and representatives from Washington County to discuss the need for improvements on the crisis stabilization unit implementation project plan submitted by the agency and offer assistance.
• 9/25: Call with AAC Legal Counsel, ACC Research and Evaluation Administrator, ACC Research and Evaluation Administrator, ACC Information Systems Coordinator, and ACC Deputy Director for Probation and Parole Services to review historical data on violation responses to assist agency leaders with preparing for changes in violation responses policies going into effect October 1 and anticipated changes in the number of individuals eligible to serve a sanction at a Technical Violator Center.
• 9/26: Call with ADC Director and Director (Health and Correctional Programs, ADC) to discuss options for conducting assessments of correctional programming.
• 9/26: Call with DBHS Assistant Director for Adult Services, DBHS Assistance Director for Quality Assurance, JRI Coordinator (Governor’s Office) , and DBHS Clinical Manager to discuss technical assistance planning for the four counties launching crisis stabilization units.
• 9/29: CSU Weekly Technical Assistance Call with DBHS Assistant Director for Adult Services, DBHS Assistance Director for Quality Assurance, JRI Coordinator (Governor’s Office) , and DBHS Clinical Manager to share county crisis stabilization unit implementation updates and provide guidance on roles and responsibilities for counties operating the sites.
• 9/29: Call with Brooke Cummings (Executive Administrator, APB) to discuss revocations for laws violations and consistency amongst Hearings Judges.
9/1/2017
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