Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Public Safety and Community Support Act”.
Public Safety and Community Support Act
A BILL
To use Byrne JAG funds for deflection and diversion programs, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2 Deflection and pre-arrest diversion
Findings— Congress finds the following:
Law enforcement officers and other first responders are at the front line of the opioid epidemic. However, a traditional law enforcement response to substance use often fails to disrupt the cycle of addiction and arrest, or reduce the risk of overdose.
Law enforcement-assisted deflection and diversion programs have the potential to improve public health, decrease the number of people entering the criminal justice system for low-level offenses, and address racial disparities.
According to the Bureau of Justice Assistance of the Department of Justice, “Five pathways have been most commonly associated with opioid overdose prevention and diversion to treatment.” The 6 pathways are—
“self-referral”, in which—
an individual voluntarily initiates contact with a first responder, such as a law enforcement officer, firefighter, or emergency medical services professional, for a treatment referral (without fear of arrest); and
the first responder personally introduces the individual to a treatment provider (commonly known as a “warm handoff”);
“active outreach”, in which a law enforcement officer or other first responder—
identifies or seeks out individuals in need of substance use disorder treatment; and
makes a warm handoff of such an individual to a treatment provider, who engages the individual in treatment;
“naloxone plus”, in which a law enforcement officer or other first responder engages an individual in treatment as a follow-up to an overdose response;
“officer prevention referral”, in which a law enforcement officer or other first responder initiates treatment engagement with an individual, but no criminal charges are filed against the individual;
“officer intervention referral”, in which—
a law enforcement officer or other first responder initiates treatment engagement with an individual; and
criminal charges are filed against the individual and held in abeyance; or
a citation is issued to the individual; and
“community response”, in which a team comprising community-based behavioral health professionals engages individuals to help de-escalate crises, mediate low-level conflicts, or address quality of life issues by providing a referral to treatment, services or to a case manager.
As of the date of enactment of this Act, there are no national best practices or guidelines for law enforcement-assisted deflection and diversion programs.
Use of byrne jag funds for deflection and diversion programs— Section 501 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10152) is amended—
in subsection (a)(1)(E), by inserting before the period at the end the following: “, including law enforcement-assisted deflection programs and law enforcement-assisted pre-arrest and pre-booking diversion programs (as those terms are defined in subsection (h))”; and
by adding at the end the following:
“(h) Law enforcement-Assisted deflection programs and law enforcement-Assisted pre-Arrest and pre-Booking diversion programs
“(1) Definitions—In this subsection:
“(A) Covered grant—The term “covered grant” means a grant for a deflection or diversion program awarded under subsection (a)(1)(E).
“(B) Deflection or diversion program—The term “deflection or diversion program” means a law enforcement-assisted deflection program or a law enforcement-assisted pre-arrest or pre-booking diversion, including a program under which—
“(i) an individual voluntarily initiates contact with a first responder for a substance use disorder or mental health treatment referral without fear of arrest and receives a warm handoff to such treatment;
“(ii) a law enforcement officer or other first responder identifies or seeks out individuals in need of substance use disorder or mental health treatment and a warm handoff is made to a treatment provider, who engages the individuals in treatment;
“(iii) a law enforcement officer or other first responder engages an individual in substance use disorder treatment as part of an overdose response;
“(iv) a law enforcement officer or other first responder initiates substance use disorder or mental health treatment engagement, but no criminal charges are filed;
“(v) a law enforcement officer or other first responder initiates substance use disorder or mental health treatment engagement with an individual; or
“(vi) charges are filed against an individual who has committed an offense that is not a crime against a person, and the primary cause of which appears to be based on a substance use disorder or mental health disorder and held in abeyance or a citation is issued to such an individual.
“(C) Law enforcement-assisted deflection program—The term “law enforcement-assisted deflection program” means a program under which a law enforcement officer, when encountering an individual who is not engaged in criminal activity but appears to have a substance use disorder or mental health disorder, instead of taking no action at the time of contact or taking action at a later time, attempts to connect the individual to substance use disorder treatment providers or mental health treatment providers—
“(i) without the use of coercion or fear of arrest; and
“(ii) using established pathways for connections to local, community-based treatment.
“(D) Law enforcement-assisted pre-arrest or pre-booking diversion program—The term “law enforcement-assisted pre-arrest or pre-booking diversion program” means a program—
“(i) under which a law enforcement officer, when encountering an individual who has committed an offense that is not a crime against a person, and the primary cause of which appears to be based on a substance use disorder or the mental health disorder of the individual, instead of arresting the individual, or instead of booking the individual after having arrested the individual, attempts to connect the individual to substance use disorder treatment providers or mental health treatment providers—
“(I) without the use of coercion; and
“(II) using established pathways for connections to local, community-based treatment;
“(ii) under which, in the case of pre-arrest diversion, a law enforcement officer described in clause (i) may decide to—
“(I) issue a civil citation; or
“(II) take no action with respect to the offense for which the officer would otherwise have arrested the individual described in clause (i); and
“(iii) that may authorize a law enforcement officer to refer an individual to substance use disorder treatment providers or mental health treatment providers if the individual appears to have a substance use disorder or mental health disorder and the officer suspects the individual of chronic violations of law but lacks probable cause to arrest the individual (commonly known as a “social contact referral”).
“(2) Sense of congress regarding deflection or diversion programs—It is the sense of Congress that a deflection or diversion program funded under this subpart should not exclude individuals who are chronically exposed to the criminal justice system.
“(3) Reports to attorney general—Not later than 2 years after the date on which a State or unit of local government is awarded a covered grant, and each year thereafter until the date that is 1 year after the date on which the period of the covered grant ends, the State or unit of local government shall submit a report to the Attorney General that includes information relating to the deflection or diversion program carried out by the State or unit of local government, including information relating to—
“(A) the goals of the deflection or diversion program;
“(B) any evidence-based interventions carried out under the deflection or diversion program;
“(C) outcomes of the deflection or diversion program, which shall—
“(i) be reported in a manner that distinguishes the outcomes based on the categories of, with respect to the participants in the deflection or diversion program—
“(I) the race of the participants; and
“(II) the gender of the participants; and
“(ii) include information relating to the rate of reincarceration among participants in the deflection or diversion program, if available; and
“(D) expenditures under the deflection or diversion program.”
Technical assistance grant program—
Definitions— In this subsection—
the term “deflection or diversion program” has the meaning given the term in subsection (h) of section 501 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10152), as added by subsection (b); and
the terms “State” and “unit of local government” have the meanings given those terms in section 901 of title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 10251).
Grant authorized— The Attorney General shall award a single grant to an entity with significant experience in working with law enforcement agencies, community-based treatment providers, and other community-based human service providers to develop or administer both deflection and diversion programs that use each of the 6 pathways described in subsection (a)(3), to promote and maximize the effectiveness and racial equity of deflection or diversion programs, in order to—
help State and units of local government launch and expand deflection or diversion programs;
develop best practices for deflection or diversion teams, which shall include—
recommendations on community input and engagement in order to implement deflection or diversion programs as rapidly as possible and with regard to the particular needs of a community, including regular community meetings and other mechanisms for engagement with—
law enforcement agencies;
community-based treatment providers and other community-based human service providers;
the recovery community; and
the community at-large; and
the implementation of metrics to measure community satisfaction concerning the meaningful participation and interaction of the community with the deflection or diversion program and program stakeholders;
develop and publish a training and technical assistance tool kit for deflection or diversion for public education purposes;
disseminate uniform criteria and standards for the delivery of deflection or diversion program services; and
develop outcome measures that can be used to continuously inform and improve social, clinical, financial and racial equity outcomes.
Term— The term of the grant awarded under paragraph (2) shall be 5 years.
Authorization of appropriations— There are authorized to be appropriated to the Attorney General $30,000,000 for the grant under paragraph (2).