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) The commission shall establish a program to provide 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.

(b) A community collaborative may petition the commission for a grant under the program 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.

(c) The commission shall condition each grant provided to a community collaborative under this section on the collaborative providing funds from non-state sources in a total amount at least equal to:

(1) 50 percent of the grant amount if the collaborative includes a county with a population of less than 250,000;

(2) 100 percent of the grant amount if the collaborative includes a county with a population of 250,000 or more; and

(3) the percentage of the grant amount otherwise required by this subsection for the largest county included in the collaborative, if the collaborative includes more than one county.

(c-1) To raise the required non-state sourced funds, a collaborative may seek and receive gifts, grants, or donations from any person.

(c-2) Beginning on or after September 1, 2018, from money appropriated to the commission for each fiscal year to implement this section, the commission shall reserve at least 20 percent of that total to be awarded only as grants to a community collaborative that includes a county with a population of less than 250,000.

(d) For each state fiscal year for which a community collaborative seeks a grant, the collaborative must submit a petition to the commission not later than the 30th day of that fiscal year. The community collaborative must include with a petition:

(1) a statement indicating the amount of funds from non-state sources the collaborative is able to provide; and

(2) a plan that:

(A) is endorsed by each of the collaborative's member entities;

(B) identifies a target population;

(C) describes how the grant money and funds from non-state sources will be used;

(D) includes outcome measures to evaluate the success of the plan; and

(E) 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.

(e) The commission must review plans submitted with a petition under Subsection (d) before the commission provides a grant under this section. The commission must fulfill the commission's requirements under this subsection not later than the 60th day of each fiscal year.

(f) 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.

(f-1) Beginning on or after September 1, 2018, to the extent money appropriated to the commission for a fiscal year to implement this section remains available to the commission after the commission selects grant recipients for the fiscal year, the commission shall make grants available using the money remaining for the fiscal year through a competitive request for proposal process, without regard to the limitation provided by Subsection (c-2).

(g) Not later than the 90th day after the last day of the state 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 (d).

(h) 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.

(i) The commission may not award a grant under this section for a fiscal year to a community collaborative that includes a county with a population greater than four million if the legislature appropriates money for a mental health jail diversion program in the county for that fiscal year.

Added by Acts 2017, 85th Leg., R.S., Ch. 528 (S.B. 292), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2017.