Meeting Information
June 12th, 2018
11:00am – 12:30
Meeting at Douglas County Public Works
1. Review and approve CJCC meeting minutes from April 10th, 2018
2. Stepping Up Initiative intensive technical assistance presentation – Council of State Governments Justice Center. Kati Habert/Deputy Program Director Behavioral Health, Rise Haneberg/Senior Policy Advisor, Jessica Gonzales/ Senior Research Associate
3. Staff updates - Pam Weigand/Robert Bieniecki
4. New business/discussion
5. Public comment
*Next meeting September 11th, 2018
NOTE: Two or more County Commissioners may be in attendance. No County business will be conducted.
June 12, 2018
Douglas County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council Meeting (CJCC)
Pam Weigand, council chair, called the regular meeting to order at 11:10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 12, 2018.
ATTENDANCE
Those in attendance included: Pam Weigand, Mike Gaughan, Eunice Ruttinger, Patrick Schmitz, Jennifer Ananda, Emily Haile, Chuck Epp, Edith Guffey, Charles Branson, Lori Alvarado, Chief Burns, Shaye Downing, and Judge Kittel. Ex-Officio members included: Craig Weinaug, and Mike Brouwer. Robert Bieniecki, CJCC Coordinator was also in attendance.
STEPPING UP INITIATIVE INTENSIVE TECHNICAL ASSISTANT PRESENTATION:
The following presenters from the Council of State Governments Justice Center: Kati Habert, Deputy Program Director Behavioral health; Rise Haneberg, Senior Policy Advisory; and Jessica Gonzales, Senior Research Associate, addressed the national crisis of people with mental illness in our jails.
The bottom line is people with mental illness are overrepresented in our jails. In our general population, 4% have a serious mental illness. Of our population in jail, 17% have a serious mental illness and of the 17 %, 72% also have a co-occurring substance abuse disorder. This portion of the jail population normally have a disproportionately higher rates of arrest, limited access to health care, longer stays in jail, and a higher recidivism rate.
More than 440 counties across 43 states, representing 140 million Americans, have signed up for the Stepping Up initiative resolving to reduce the number of people with mental illness in jails. In Kansas, six counties have passed Stepping Up resolutions: Douglas, Johnson, Pawnee, Pottawatomie, Reno and Riley. The strategies must focus on four key outcome: 1) Reduce the number of people with Severe Mental Illness (SMI) and Substance Use Disorder (SUD) booked into jails, 2) Shorten the length of stay in jails for people with SMI and SUD; 3) Increase the percentage of people connected to treatment, and 4) Reduce rates of recidivism.
From a project approach, there are similar stepping up project in a few other counties. These groups are sharing lesson learned from other states. The challenges they are seeing include:
• Being data driven-policy makers and practitioners face complex decisions have limited info
• Using best practices – not always able to provide services
• Continuity of care
• Tracking progress
To make this successful, we need
• Committed leadership,
• data driven analysis,
• look at the data together
• See why people are flowing through the system.
• How are they getting to the system?
• Why are they staying longer and
• What services do we connect them to?
• Setting actionable targets
• Tract progress
• Look at screening and assessments
• Get timely screenings
• Know who is in the system
• Use screening and assessment information for decision making
• Data Drive analysis: at end of project review findings and policy recommendations, identify next steps and track progress.
There are similar stories everywhere. Everyone can apply Stepping up to their community.
MINUTES
Guffey moved approval of the minutes for 04/10/18. Ruttinger seconded and the motion carried.
STAFF UPDATES: Pam Weigand/Robert Bieniecki
Completion and Self-Assessment. Suggested to CJCC at next meeting do a one-day retreat. Find a day to spend more time on these things. In advance send self-assessment. Talk about where we are what we’ve done and where we’re going.
Gaughan stated the group needs deeper and longer discussions. We need to work toward a couple of key things that are now in place, decide where to go next and how to finish our work.
Epp said we need to start a conversation on addressing some aspect of poverty like paying fees, and getting an appointment is a huge challenge.
Guffey would like to see clarity on subgroups.
Bieniecki said he is currently talking with stakeholders on a project and how to fund it.
NEW BUSINESS/DISCUSSION
Gaughan discussed having the data on pretrial moved to a calendar year for comparison purposes. It will be an easier timeline to understand.
Guffey suggested a discussion about the Stepping Up Initiatives and determining where some of the obvious gaps are.
Bieniecki stated we need to determine how to engage the community. Talk about what the government is doing.
• Next Meeting: CJCC Retreat, September 14. Location: Flory Building at Douglas County Fairgrounds.
Guffey moved to adjourn; Branson seconded and the motion carried.
Time and Date