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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