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Mental Health (Project DOT)

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Jail Home>Jail>Major Breton >Project DOT

Divert Offenders to Treatment
Project DOT

Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, in collaboration with the National Alliance of the Mentally Ill (NAMI; mgattine@gwi.net ),The Co-Occurring Collaborative of Southern Maine (CCSME; cchichester@ccsme.org.gwia.ccsd ), Catholic Charities of Maine, Portland Police Department, Maine Pretrial Services (elizabeth.simoni@mainepretrial.org ), Volunteers of America (VOA; nancy.ives@voanne.org  ), Maine Medical Center (MMC; ranucp@springharbor.org ), the Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services, and the  Maine State Housing Authority, received a grant from U.S. Department of Public Health, office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), of almost one million dollars over three years to divert mentally ill offenders to community treatment. 

The individuals served are adults 18 years old and up with a serious and persistent mental illness or co-occurring substance abuse and mental illness disorders who have been incarcerated in the Cumberland County Jail.  These individuals are low-risk, non-violent offenders whose mental illness is a key contributing factor to their arrest.  These persons are currently not receiving adequate psychiatric care in jail and are frequently released to the community without appropriate follow up.  Due to their incarceration status, they typically have lost their Maine Care insurance plan by the time of release and are uninsured and on long waiting list for services.  To address these issues  Project DOT was able to provide expanded  treatment capacity to existing services.  Portland Police Department was able to expand and train additional CIT officers  (rag@portlandmaine.gov ). Maine Pretrial Services was able to hire a specialized boundary spanner person to provide case management and supervision while clients are on bail.  Maine Medical was able to create a specialized forensic ACT team to provide treatment and long- term follow up for clients with severe and persistent mental illness.  VOA was able to start a six- bed residential, up to two years, treatment program for clients in need. 

It was expected that participants would initially experience a reduction in their days incarcerated, in re-arrest, hospitalization rates and in the use of crisis services.  Outcomes would also include, but not be limited to; a link to appropriate psychiatric and case management services, recovery based services, housing support, availability of support on a 7-day/24- hour basis, medication support, vocational support, health promotion, financial management and overall day-to-day support.

CIT officers have had over 2000 contacts with Portland citizens.  Crisis Intervention Training has recently been made available to correctional staff at Cumberland County Jail and twenty five correctional officers have been trained in this area.   Maine Medical Center’s FACT team has served 74 clients and has a current capacity for 32 clients.  Maine Pretrial Services has served over 200 clients since the jail diversion started. In 2004 a study of ten clients in treatment with the FACT team for at least one year showed 13 fewer arrest and reduction of  527 days in jail.  In 2006, a similar study of seventeen clients showed 33 fewer arrest and 861 fewer days spent in jail.  Further evaluation is almost finished and will be available when analysis is completed.

Please contact Paul E. Coleman, L.C.P.C. coleman@cumberlandcounty.org if you have any questions regarding releases or referrals.

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