Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Reauthorization Act of 2022

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, S. 3846 makes a number of changes to the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program.

The Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program is a Department of Justice program that assists States, local governments, and Indian Tribes with providing treatment to individuals with mental health problems and substance abuse disorders that come into contact with the criminal justice system.

This bill allows funds under this program to be used for crisis intervention team and co-responder teams made up of law enforcement officers and mental health professionals. These teams can be placed within 911 call centers to better respond to individuals facing mental health challenges.

It also allows funds under this program to help State and local governments implement the 988 universal telephone number, which is the national suicide prevention and mental health hotline.

This legislation also authorizes $2 million for each of the next 5 years for the Department of Justice to report on the prevalence of mentally ill offenders in the criminal justice system.

While this bill is well-intentioned, more needs to be done to address the surge of violent crime this Nation has seen over the past 3 years.

Violent crime is especially bad in Democrat-run cities with rogue leftist prosecutors who don't enforce the laws on the books and in cities that have demonized and defunded their police departments. I would point you to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

It is no wonder that 27 of the 30 cities with the highest homicide rates have Democratic mayors. We need to keep violent criminals behind bars and put an end to soft-on-crime policies that are wreaking havoc on our communities.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close. I reserve the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source