By: Huffman, et al. S.B. No. 292

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

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 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 previously appropriated to the Department of State Health Services each fiscal year to implement 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 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.