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.)
Click here to see the committee vote
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 292 By: Watson
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 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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