SB 6002-S - DIGEST

(SUBSTITUTED FOR - SEE 2ND SUB)

     Declares an intent of the legislature to create a pilot program to provide for postrelease mental health care and housing for a select group of mentally ill offenders entering community living, in order to reduce incarceration costs, increase public safety, and enhance the offender's quality of life.

     Requires the secretary to select and contract with a regional support network to provide specialized access and services to mentally ill offenders upon release from total confinement within the department of corrections who have been identified by the department of corrections and selected by the regional support network as high-priority clients for services and who meet service program entrance criteria.  The program shall enroll no more than twenty-five offenders at any one time, but shall seek to fill any vacancies that occur.

     Directs the department of social and health services, in collaboration with the department of corrections and the regional support network, to track outcomes and submit to the legislature a report of services and outcomes by December 1, 1998, and annually thereafter.

     Makes an appropriation of five hundred thousand dollars for the biennium ending June 30, 1999, from the general fund to the department of social and health services for the purposes of this act.