Senate Bill 1054 (Steinberg), will renew funding for the Mentally Ill Offender Crime Reduction (MIOCR) Grant Program at $50 million, divided evenly between adult and juvenile populations. The grants are used to create diversion, reentry, and training programs for individuals living with mental illness who are criminal justice involved. In the past, MIOCR grants were used to establish mental health courts, among other productive uses.

The bill will be heard on Tuesday, April 22, 2014, at 9:30 a.m. in the Senate Public Safety Committee, State Capitol Room 3191. This is one of NAMI California’s Tier 1 bills, meaning it’s one of our highest priority pieces of legislation. NAMI California and the Capitol Coalition will be delivering testimony at the hearing.

Please see NAMI California’s support letter HERE.

Bill Summary: Would require the Board of State and Community Corrections to administer and award mentally ill offender crime reduction grants on a competitive basis to counties that expand or establish a continuum of swift, certain, and graduated responses to reduce crime and criminal justice costs related to mentally ill offenders. This bill would appropriate $50,000,000 from the Recidivism Reduction Fund in the 2014-15 fiscal year for the mentally ill offender crime reduction grant program, and require that half of that amount be used for adult offenders and half for juvenile offenders.

— Caliph Assagai, J.D.
Legislation and Public Policy Director, NAMI California
Caliph.assagai@namicalifornia.org

–David Czarnecki
Advocacy Coordinator, NAMI California
David.czarnecki@namicalifornia.org