Substance Abuse/Drugs

The police departments in Dayton, Ohio and Madison, Wisconsin have both adopted nontraditional responses to the opioid crisis and other drug addictions, including outreach to overdose victims, joint-working with treatment and service providers, and pre-arrest diversion. Dayton, in particular, was nationally known as the epicenter of the opiate epidemic, with police personnel administering 162 doses of naloxone to 82 overdose victims in one month in 2017.

The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) was signed into law on July 22, 2016. As part of CARA, the Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Program solicitation offers states, local governments, and Indian tribes six funding categories to expand outreach, treatment, and recovery efforts to individuals impacted by the opioid epidemic. In only its third year, this solicitation offers immense opportunities for tribes to design and enhance their own systems pursuant to community needs.

In this webinar, Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) leaders will review the fiscal year 2019 Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Program grant application process. This site-based grant program provides awards ranging from $600,000 to $6,500,000 for a 36-month project period to deliver financial and technical assistance to states, units of local government, and Indian tribal governments to plan, develop, and implement comprehensive efforts to identify, respond to, treat, and support those impacted by the opioid epidemic.  

There are three award categories:

The Sentinel Events Initiative (SEI) aims to empower jurisdictions by learning from negative outcomes in the criminal justice system and preventing their reoccurrence. Currently, the Bureau of Justice Assistance is seeking sites for the SEI National Demonstration Collaboration, in which jurisdictions across the country will receive technical assistance to conduct sentinel event reviews of outcomes such as wrongful releases, in-custody deaths, or fatal overdoses of justice-involved individuals.