This bill is a concept draft pursuant to Joint Rule 208. This bill proposes to charge the State Workforce Board with the responsibility of preparing a plan to expand the State's current workforce development programming for incarcerated persons and persons reentering the community after incarceration in consultation with the Department of Corrections and the Department of Labor in calendar year 2023. The responsibility for execution of this plan would rest with those departments beginning January 1, 2024. This bill also proposes adopting the specific recommendations of the Jail Navigator Focus Group on Transition/Reentry, which include the following.
1. The Legislature would set standards for all jails to conduct mental health and substance use assessments within 48 hours after booking for all residents, both pretrial and sentenced, and provide needed substance use disorder treatment. Mental health and substance use disorder treatment and recovery services would be offered and supported throughout the resident's stay and planned for upon release.
2. The Legislature would increase support for the Department of Health and Human Services to supply all jails with sufficient intensive case manager staffing with case loads that reflect best practice ratios of 20 residents to one intensive case manager to prepare and support all residents upon release. This support would help reduce the major barriers to successful reintegration into the community such as housing, transportation, food security, mentorship and health care services. Intensive case managers would continue to support the individuals' reentry into the community until the individuals are fully established with community-based case managers or providers.
3. The Legislature would support and fund access at every level of treatment, including community-based services, for individuals with mental health challenges and substance use disorder, including co-occurring disorders. The Legislature would also direct the Department of Health and Human Services' office of MaineCare services to explore a MaineCare supportive housing services benefit.
4. The Legislature would support and fund access for peer-to-peer mentorship programs at each jail in the State.
5. The Legislature would support funding for intensive case managers, working with community partners, to create programs for those leaving incarceration and returning to our communities to supply those individuals with items of immediate need such as personal hygiene items, fentanyl test strips, naloxone hydrochloride, a cellular telephone with limited minutes and recovery and prevention literature, as well as established housing and initial appointments for treatment. The provision of these goods and services would be tracked for reporting purposes.
6. The Legislature would direct all jails to track assessments, treatment and reentry services provided, preferably with one common management information system, to determine which services are needed most often to inform investments with specific
43 metrics to be developed. In addition, this tracking should enable jails and other
44 stakeholders to ascertain which reentry services achieve the best outcomes for reducing
45 recidivism.
7. The Legislature would consider how to use the development of the new Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic model of care in this State as a major connector to post-release community treatment.