BJA FY 21 The Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program Competitive Grant Solicitation

Mental health agencies The term "mental health agency" means an agency of a state or local government or its contracted agency that is responsible for mental health services or co-occurring mental health and substance abuse services.   In this solicitation, “state” means any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. (See 34 U.S.C. 10251.) BJA will only accept applications that demonstrate the proposed project will be administered jointly by an agency with responsibility for criminal or juvenile justice activities and a mental health agency. A “criminal justice agency” is an agency of state or local government or its contracted agency that is responsible for detection, arrest, enforcement, prosecution, defense, adjudication, incarceration, probation, or parole relating to the violation of the criminal laws of that state or local government (sec. 2991(a)(3)).   To advance Executive Order 13929 Safe Policing for Safe Communities, the Attorney General determined that all state, local, and university or college law enforcement agencies must be certified by an approved independent credentialing body or have started the certification process no later than January 31, 2021, to be eligible for FY 2021 DOJ discretionary grant funding. To become certified, the law enforcement agency must meet two mandatory conditions: (1) the agency’s use of force policies adhere to all applicable federal, state, and local laws; and (2) the agency’s use of force policies prohibit chokeholds except in situations where use of deadly force is allowed by law. The certification requirement also applies to law enforcement agencies receiving DOJ discretionary grant funding through a subaward. For detailed information on this new certification requirement, please visit https://cops.usdoj.gov/SafePolicingEO to access the Standards for Certification on Safe Policing for Safe Communities, Implementation Fact Sheet, and List of Designated Independent Credentialing Bodies. All recipients and subrecipients (including any for-profit organization) must forgo any profit or management fee.