Statement Of Senator Patrick Leahy
Mentally Ill Offender Treatment And Crime Reduction Act
Press Conference
June 5, 2003

This is a bill that will help state and local governments reduce crime.  All too often, people with mental illness rotate repeatedly between the criminal justice system and the streets of our communities, committing a series of minor offenses.  Law enforcement officers’ ever scarcer time is being occupied by these offenders, and they are diverted from their more urgent responsibilities. 

Offenders find themselves in prisons or jails, where little or no appropriate medical care is available for them.  This bill gives state and local governments the tools to break this cycle, for the good of law enforcement, corrections officers, the public’s safety, and mentally ill offenders.

The bill creates a new $100 million grant program for state and local governments.  Among other purposes, the money can be used to:

ü      Provide for better training for law enforcement officers in dealing with mentally ill offenders,

ü      Provide mental health treatment for prisoners and former prisoners,

ü      Create or expand mental health courts and other court-based programs, which divert qualified offenders from prison to receive treatment.  

This bill has brought law enforcement officers and mental health professionals together, as you can see here today.  Our states have been dealing with the unique problems created by mentally ill offenders for many years, and a federal response is overdue.  Mental health, law enforcement, and corrections officials in Vermont have offered their advice and support in the drafting of this bill, and I look forward to continuing to work with them.

I am proud to have held a hearing on this issue last year that helped flesh out these problems and develop this bill, and I am pleased to be the lead Democratic sponsor of the bill again this year.  I look forward to working with Senator DeWine and Representative Strickland to enact this bill this Congress.

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Related Links:

Hearing Statement - Statement of Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee   Hearing On "The Criminal Justice System And Mentally Ill Offenders" June 11, 2002