Section 29:2QQQQQ - Criminal Justice and Community Support Trust Fund(a) There shall be a Criminal Justice and Community Support Trust Fund that shall be administered by the commissioner of mental health, in consultation with the executive office of public safety and security. The fund shall consist of amounts credited to the fund from: (i) any appropriations, grants, gifts or other money authorized by the general court or other parties and specifically designated to be credited to the fund; and(ii) any income derived from the investment of amounts credited to the fund. Any unexpended balance in the fund at the end of a fiscal year shall not revert to the General Fund and shall be available for expenditure in the subsequent fiscal year.(b) All amounts credited to the fund shall be used without further appropriation to make grants to county and community-based jail diversion programs and community policing and behavioral health training initiatives. The grants shall be for: (i) the support of jail diversion programs for persons living with mental illness or substance use disorder;(ii) the development and provision of training for state, county and municipal law enforcement in evidence-based or evidence-informed mental health and substance use crisis response or alternative emergency response; (iii) the creation of patient-focused, ongoing community services for individuals who are frequent users of emergency departments and live with serious and persistent mental illness or substance use disorder;(iv) the support of trauma-informed, gender-responsive, pre-arrest or pre-arraignment diversion programs; or (v) the planning and implementation of restoration centers to divert individuals living with mental illness or substance use disorder who interact with law enforcement or the court system during a pre-arrest investigation or the pre-adjudication process from lock-up facilities and hospital emergency departments to appropriate treatment.(c) Annually, not later than March 1, the commissioner of mental health shall issue a report to the clerks of the senate and house of representatives, the joint committee on mental health, substance use and recovery, the joint committee on public safety and homeland security and the senate and house committees on ways and means on the fund's activities including, but not limited to, amounts credited to the fund, amounts expended from the fund and any unexpended balance. Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 29, § 2QQQQQ
Added by Acts 2021, c. 24,§ 17, eff. 7/1/2021.