News and Announcements

• Social Work Grand Challenges features CBHJ's work promoting smart decarceration. August 27, 2020
• CBHJ In the News (Second Wave Michigan) - Leading the nation, Michigan’s Opioid Treatment Ecosystems save lives through holistic model July 23, 2020
• CBHJ In the News (ProPublica Illinois) - A Teenager Didn’t Do Her Online Schoolwork. So a Judge Sent Her to Juvenile Detention. July 14, 2020
• CBHJ In the News (LegalNews.com) - In youth justice, anti-COVID-19 methods could also work in the future July 2, 2020
• CBHJ In the News (Detroit Free Press) - To protect crime victims, support jail reform | Opinion
  When asked what county jails are for, the average Michigander will likely say “public safety.” So might the average lawmaker. Jails are there to protect the community, right? Before the Michigan Jails Task Force released its report earlier this year, it wasn’t well known that tens of thousands of people were jailed in our state for driving on a suspended license or for unpaid tickets, fees, and child support. It wasn’t well known that rural counties in our state were outpacing Wayne and Kent Counties in jail population and seeing extremely high rates of serious mental illness among those jailed. Somewhere along the way, as Michigan’s jails tripled in size, their purpose got muddled. They became a tool for debt collection. A tool for responding to homelessness, mental illness, and addiction.
  May 4, 2020
• CBHJ in the News (Spartan News Room) - Opioid treatment in jails needs 3 drugs, experts say
  LANSING — County officials, medical professionals and the Center for Behavioral Health and Justice will meet through an online summit May 5 to discuss their experiences with the Opioid Treatment Ecosystem (OTE) program in county jails.
  April 24, 2020
• CBHJ In the News (9&10 News) - Northern Michigan Counties ‘Stepping Up’ to Help Those Struggling with Mental Illness February 24, 2020
• CBHJ in the News (Ionia Sentinel-Standard): Prisoners with mental illness don't belong in county jail, report says.
  Individuals with severe mental illnesses are more likely to be sentenced to jail and were more likely to experience reincarceration, especially for petty crimes, according to Wayne State University’s Center for Behavioral Health and Justice. The criminal justice system needs to change how it handles mental health, the report said. The Wayne State center reports 23% of people entering Michigan jails had a serious mental illness. The rate went up to 34% in rural jails.
  January 27, 2020
• CBHJ in the News (MLIVE): Fewer driver’s license suspensions, more mental health diversions among 18 ideas from jail task force
  Michigan’s jails are getting more crowded, and many people currently serving time are either there too long or would be better served by an alternative to jail, a task force that’s been studying jail data in Michigan over the last several months has concluded.
  January 16, 2020
• CBHJ in the News (Grand Haven Tribune): The next frontier of criminal justice reform: County jails January 14, 2020
• CBHJ in the News (Detroit Legal News): Too many people are locked up for too long at too high a cost
  David Guenthner, Mackinac Center for Public Policy Michigan’s crime rate presently sits at a 50-year low and its prison population at a 20-year low. So it should follow that the state’s jail population also should be declining, as it has nationally since 2008. Instead, Michigan’s jail population has tripled since the 1980s — with no sign of abating. In Michigan, the Wayne State University Center for Behavioral Health and Justice found that 23 percent of jail inmates suffered from serious mental illness and that figure surged to 34 percent in rural counties.
  January 10, 2020
• The next frontier of criminal justice reform: County jails (The Hill)
  "In Michigan, the Wayne State University Center for Behavioral Health and Justice found that 23 percent of jail inmates suffered from serious mental illness and that figure surged to 34 percent in rural counties. Putting them behind bars doesn’t make them any better, and in many cases makes them worse. The cost is massive. The Wayne State study found that individuals with serious mental illness spent twice as many days in jail as those without."
  January 2, 2020
• CBHJ Director Brad Ray interviewed by Filter Magazine on increasing Fentanyl-Meath deaths in Indiana
  '[R]esearchers still don’t know whether people are primarily knowingly combining fentanyl and methamphetamine as “speedballs,” or if the drugs they purchase are adulterated without their knowledge. “We don’t have a good answer yet,” said Bradley Ray, director of Wayne State University’s Center for Behavioral Health and Justice. “We don’t know how often fentanyl is being mixed with methamphetamine, or if people are intentionally taking both drugs together.”'
  September 11, 2019
• Reentry Podcast Highlights Transition Out of Incarceration
  While We Were Away is a podcast by formerly incarcerated people highlighting their transition out of incarceration.
  January 7, 2019