An Act To Reduce the Incidence of Incarceration for People with Mental Illness
Maine Legislature, Session 123, LD 1612
Committee: Criminal Justice and Public Safety
Sponsors: SIMPSON, SMITH
Amends: 25 MRSA §2804-D, 34-A MRSA §1210-A

Legislative Document 
No. 1612 
H.P.1134 
House of Representatives, March 21, 2007 
An Act To Reduce the Incidence of Incarceration for People with 
Mental Illness 
Reference to the Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety suggested and ordered 
printed. 
Presented by Representative SIMPSON of Auburn. 
Cosponsored by Representative: SMITH of Monmouth. 
Prinred on recycled paper 
ll/~m·711~ 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1. 25 MRS A §2804-C, sub-§2-B, as enacted by PL 2005, c. 393, § 1, is 
amended to read: 
2-B. Training regarding people who are homeless or who have mental illness. 
The board shall include in the basic law enforcement training program a block of 
instruction aimed specifically at reducing barriers to reporting crimes against people who 
are homeless and dealing with the unique challenges posed by cases that involve victims 
or witnesses who are homeless. The board shall also include a block of instruction aimed 
specifically at addressing the special circumstances connected with responding to people 
who are experiencing psychiatric crises, including discussion of crisis intervention team 
programs administered by a state chapter of a national alliance on mental illness and 
program outcomes and other best practices for diverting those people to treatment. 
Sec. 2. 25 MRSA §2804-D, sub-§l, as amended by PL 2001, c. 386, §6, is 
further amended to read: 
1. Required. As a condition to the continued employment of any person as a full-
time corrections officer by a municipality, a county, the State or any other nonfederal 
employer, that person must successfully complete, within the first 12 months of 
employment, a basic training course of not less than 80 hours as approved by the board. 
That course must contain information about crisis intervention team programs 
administered by a state chapter of a national alliance on mental illness and other best 
practices for responding to psychiatric crises in a correctional setting. Thereafter, as a 
condition of continued employment as a full-time corrections officer, the officer must 
satisfactorily maintain the basic certification. 
The board, under extenuating and 
emergency circumstances in individual cases, may extend the 12-month period for not 
more than 90 days. 
The board, in individual cases, may waive basic training 
requirements when the facts indicate that an equivalent course has been successfully 
completed in another state or federal jurisdiction within the 2 years immediately 
preceding employment. 
This section applies to any person employed as a full-time 
corrections officer on or after July 6, 1978. Administrators of facilities where there are 
corrections officers who are not full-time are encouraged to develop an orientation 
program for those persons. A full-time correctional trade instructor hired after January 1, 
2002 must meet the training requirements established under this subsection for full-time 
corrections officers. 
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Sec. 3. 34-A MRS A §1210-A, sub-§l, ~A, as enacted by PL 1997, c. 753, §2, is 
amended to read: 
A. 
"Community corrections" means the delivery of correctional services for 
juveniles or adults in the least restrictive manner that ensures the public safety by the 
county or for the county under contract with a public or private entity. "Community 
corrections" includes, but is not limited to, preventive or diversionary correctional 
programs, pretrial release or conditional release programs, alternative sentencing or 
housing programs, electronic monitoring, residential treatment and halfway house 
programs, community correctional centers and temporary release programs from a 
facility for the detention or confinement of persons convicted of crimes or 
adjudicated delinquents. "Community corrections" may include programs in the jail, 
such as crisis intervention team programs administered by a state chapter of a 
national alliance on mental illness, that are designed to reduce the incidence of 
~hiatric crisis, including the need for one-on-one supervision or restraint of 
inmates who are suicidal. 
Sec. 4. 34-A MRSA §1210-A, sub-§3, as enacted by PL 1997, c. 753, §2, is 
amended to read: 
3. Distribution. Beginning July 1, 1998 and annually thereafter, the department 
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shall distribute the County Jail Prisoner Support and Community Corrections Fund to 
counties based on the percent distribution of actual funds reimbursed to counties pursuant 
to former section 1210 in fiscal year 1996-97. The percent distribution per county is as 
follows: 
A. Androscoggin: 8.5%; 
B. Aroostook: 6.6%; 
C. Cumberland: 17.6%; 
D. Franklin: 2.4%; 
E. Hancock: 3.3%; 
F. Kennebec: 6.9%; 
G. Knox: 6.4%; 
H. Lincoln: 3.7%; 
I. Oxford: 4.7%; 
J. Penobscot: 13.7%; 
K. Piscataquis: 1.3%; 
L. Sagadahoc: 2.7%; 
M. Somerset: 5.5%; 
N. Waldo: 3.7%; 
O. Washington: 1.8%; and 
P. York: 11.2%. 
Effective September 30,2007, counties that use a portion of these funds to establish crisis 
intervention team programs administered by a state chapter of a national alliance on 
mental illness and other programs designed to reduce the incidence of psychiatric crisis 
must receive an additional 2% in funding. 
Sec. 5. 34-B MRS A §1219, sub-§3 is enacted to read: 
3. Evidence-based and best practices proe;rams. The department shall include the 
development and maintenance of crisis intervention team programs administered by a 
state chapter of a national alliance on mental illness and other evidence-based diversion 
programs in its comprehensive strategy for preventing the inappropriate incarceration of 
seriously mentally ill individuals and for diverting those individuals away from the 
criminal justice system. Crisis intervention team programs must be included in the State's 
joint action plan for diversion and reentry. 
Sec. 6. 36 MRS A §1811, first~, as amended by PL 2001, c. 439, Pt. TTTT, §2 
and affected by §3, is further amended to read: 
A tax is imposed on the value of all tangible personal property and taxable services 
sold at retail in this State. The rate of tax is +% 7.5% on the value of liquor sold in 
licensed establishments as defined in Title 28-A, section 2, subsection 15, in accordance 
with Title 28-A, chapter 43; 7% on the value of rental of living quarters in any hotel, 
rooming house or tourist or trailer camp; 10% on the value of rental for a period of less 
than one year of an automobile; 7% on the value of prepared food; and 5% on the value 
of all other tangible personal property and taxable services. Value is measured by the 
sale price, except as otherwise provided. 
Sec. 7. Funding for crisis intervention teams. The Department of Health and 
Human Services, the Department of Corrections and the Department of Public Safety 
shall jointly fund crisis intervention teams in jails and police departments in this State. 
Annual funding of $90,000 must be provided to the National Alliance on Mental Illness 
of Maine to start and administer crisis intervention team programs across the State and 
engage in other jail diversion project development and delivery. 
SUMMARY 
This bill: 
(1) Requires 3 departments of government to jointly fund the National Alliance on 
Mental Illness of Maine to establish and maintain crisis intervention team programs 
administered by a state chapter of a national alliance on mental illness and other jail 
diversion programs across the State; 
(2) Requires the Maine Criminal Justice Academy to educate law enforcement and 
correctional officers about crisis intervention team programs administered by a state 
chapter of a national alliance on mental illness and other evidence-based and best practice 
diversion programs; 
(3) Establishes an incentive for correctional centers to establish crisis intervention 
team programs administered by a state chapter of a national alliance on mental illness and 
other evidence-based programs for reducing the incidence of psychiatric crises in jail by 
granting them additional funding from the County Jail Prisoner Support and Community 
Corrections Fund; and 
(4) Establishes an incentive for law enforcement departments to implement crisis 
intervention team programs administered by a state chapter of a national alliance on 
mental illness and other best practices for diverting people in psychiatric crisis from jail 
by increasing the tax on the sale of liquor sold in licensed establishments by .5%. 
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