Spotlight Announcement

9/20/2005: CSG Convenes Forum on Federal Benefits

The Council of State Governments (CSG), coordinator of the Reentry Policy Council, in collaboration with the TAPA Center for Jail Diversion, recently convened a forum on ensuring prompt access to benefits for eligible individuals with mental illness who are released from prison. The forum, supported by the MacArthur Foundation, the Department of Justice, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), was attended by a select group of high-level state officials including directors of correction and mental health departments as well as representatives from SAMHSA, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE), and the Social Security Administration (SSA).

Many individuals with a serious mental illness who are in US prisons or jails are eligible for Medicaid and/or SSI/SSDI when they enter the facility; few, however, are enrolled in these federal benefit programs upon release. As a result, their access to medications and treatment – typically essential to compliance with conditions of release for people with mental illnesses – is severely limited, presenting a significant obstacle to their transition from prison or jail to the community.

At the forum, nearly 50 state legislators, researchers, and mental health and criminal justice officials met to
improve understanding of these problems in order to maximize the value of local, state, and federal responses. Representatives from federal agencies explained their rules to relevant state stakeholders and highlighted their agencies' commitment to this issue. State teams from Minnesota, Texas, New York, and Pennsylvania discussed
what their states have done to streamline the enrollment process, and to determine successful ways to further improve their efforts.

In addition to collaborating to ensure access to federal benefits for eligible individuals, CSG and TAPA have collaborated to promote judicial leadership and improve understanding of the fiscal implications of the disproportionate involvement of people with mental illness in the criminal justice system.

To read more information on the issue and the forum, see this Issue Brief published on the Council of State Governments / Eastern Regional Conference website.

In partnership with another CSG initiative, the Consensus Project , the Reentry Policy Council is in the process of developing documents explaining the relevant federal regulations and describing promising practices for each of the participating states. These documents, which provide valuable guidance for any state looking to address this issue, will soon be available on the Reentry Policy Council website.

Back to top