Resolve, To Direct the Commissioner of Health and Human Services To Establish a Blue Ribbon Task Force To Examine the Attorney General's Report Regarding Police Shootings as It Relates to Deaths of Persons with Mental Illness
Maine Legislature, Session 124, LD 1342
Committee Amendment CA_A_H414 (House)

COMMITTEE AMENDMENT "A" to H.P. 943, L.D. 1342, "Resolve, To Direct 
the Commissioner of Health and Human Services To Establish a Blue Ribbon Task Force 
To Examine the Attorney General's Report Regarding Police Shootings as It Relates to 
Deaths of Persons with Mental Illness" 
Amend the resolve by striking out the title and substituting the following: 
'Resolve, To Establish the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Law Enforcement, the 
Courts, the Correctional System and Persons with Mental Illness' 
Amend the resolve by striking out everything after the title and before the summary 
and inserting the following: 
'Sec. 1. Blue Ribbon Task Force on Law Enforcement, the Courts, the 
Correctional System and Persons with Mental Illness. Resolved: That the 
Department of Corrections, the Department of Health and Human Services, the 
Department of Public Safety and the Judicial Department shall work together to convene 
the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Law Enforcement, the Courts, the Correctional System 
and Persons with Mental Illness. 
1. The blue ribbon task force consists of representatives of all of the convening 
agencies and representatives of the Office of the Attorney General, persons with mental 
illness and providers of services to persons with mental illness and members of the 
general public. 
2. The blue ribbon task force shall review information from this State and other 
states with demographics similar to this State regarding the issues listed in this 
subsection. 
The information must include the costs, outcomes and effectiveness 
regarding the following issues: 
A. Services to persons with mental illness, including but not limited to crisis services 
and community-based and facility-based mental health and substance abuse services, 
and the costs and delivery systems for those services; 
B. Training for providers of mental health services regarding and procedures for 
coordination with law enforcement, the courts and the correctional system; 
COMMITTEE AMENDMENT 
~~co. 
COMMITTEE AMENDMENT "A" to H.P. 943, L.D. 1342 
C. Training for law enforcement, the courts and correctional personnel regarding 
mental illness, working with persons with mental illness, working with persons with 
mental illness who also require substance abuse services, working with providers of 
services to persons with mental illness including providers of crisis services and 
substance abuse services and coordination with providers of services to persons with 
mental illness; 
D. 
Any available information from the Mental Health Homicide, Suicide and 
Aggravated Assault Review Board established pursuant to the Maine Revised 
Statutes, Title 34-B, section 1931; and 
E. 
Best practices for interactions between persons with mental illness, law 
enforcement, the courts, the corrections system and providers of services to persons 
with mental illness. 
3. 
The Department of Health and Human Services shall coordinate with the 
Department of Corrections, the Department of Public Safety and the Judicial Department 
to submit a report to the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety 
and the Joint Standing Committee on Health And Human Services by January 15,2010. 
The report must include the findings and recommendations of the blue ribbon task force 
regarding each of the areas of concern listed in subsection 2 and recommendations for the 
blue ribbon task force regarding those findings.' 
SUMMARY 
This amendment is the minority report and it replaces the resolve and renames it. 
The amendment directs the Department of Corrections, the Department of Health and 
Human Services, the Department of Public Safety and the Judicial Department to work 
together to convene the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Law Enforcement, the Courts, the 
Correctional System and Persons with Mental Illness. The blue ribbon task force must 
review information from this State and other states regarding the costs, outcomes and 
effectiveness of the following issues: services to persons with mental illness, including 
but not limited to crisis services and community-based and facility-based mental health 
and substance abuse services, and the costs and delivery systems for those services; 
training for providers of mental health services regarding and procedures for coordination 
with law enforcement, the courts and the correctional system; training for law 
enforcement, the courts and correctional personnel regarding mental illness, working with 
persons with mental illness, working with persons with mental illness who also require 
substance abuse services, working with providers of services to persons with mental 
illness including providers of crisis services and substance abuse services and 
coordination with providers of services to persons with mental illness; any available 
information from the Mental Health Homicide, Suicide and Aggravated Assault Review 
Board established pursuant tothe Maine Revised Statutes, Title 34-B, section 1931; and 
best practices for interactions between persons with mental illness, law enforcement, the 
courts, the corrections system and providers of services to persons with mental illness. 
The amendment also requires a report from the agencies on the work of the blue 
ribbon task force by January 15, 2010 to the Joint Standing Committee on Health and 
Human Services and the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety. 
FJ[SCAL j';OTE REQUIRED 
(See attached) 
COMMITTEE AMENDMENT 
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Approved: OS/25/09 Mac. 
LD 1342 
LR 1274(02) 
Resolve, To Direct the Commissioner of Health and Human Services To Establish a Blue Ribbon Task 
Force To Examine the Attorney General's Report Regarding Police Shootings as It Relates to Deaths 
of Persons with Mental Illness 
Fiscal Detail and Notes 
Fiscal Note for Bill as Amended by Committee Amendment 'A" 
Committee: Criminal Justice and Public Safety 
Fiscal Note Required: Yes 
Fiscal Note 
Minor cost increase - General Fund 
Additional costs to the Department the Attorney General, the Department of Health and Human Services and the 
Department of Public Safety can be absorbed within existing budgeted resources. 
LRl274(02) - Fiscal Note - Page 1 of 1