Section 17

Section 17 Criminal Justice and Community Support Trust Fund

Said chapter 29 is hereby further amended by inserting after section 2OOOOO, as inserted by section 13 of chapter 358 of the acts of 2020, the following 2 sections:-

Section 2PPPPP. There shall be an Academic Health Department Partnerships Trust Fund. The fund shall be administered by the commissioner of public health to support the administration of the academic health department and the academic volunteer corps programs of the department of public health. There shall be credited to the fund all money received from public or private sources including, but not limited to, gifts, grants, donations, bequests and contributions of cash, securities or property in kind from persons or other governmental, nongovernmental, quasi-governmental or local government entities. Expenditures from the fund shall be made to support the academic health department and academic volunteer corps programs, including, but not limited to: (i) staff administrative support; (ii) paid internships; (iii) training and workforce development activities; and (iv) other services in support of the programs. The department of public health may incur expenses and the comptroller may certify amounts for payment in anticipation of expected receipts; provided, however, that no expenditure shall be made from the fund which shall cause the fund to be deficient at the close of a fiscal year. Amounts credited to the fund shall not be subject to further appropriation and money remaining in the fund at the close of a fiscal year shall not revert to the General Fund and shall be available for expenditure in the subsequent fiscal year.

Section 2QQQQQ. (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.