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Good Thursday morning!
It just got harder for the Democrats who control Bergen and Hudson counties to hold onto their ICE contracts at local jails.
Essex County announced yesterday that now that it has an agreement with Union County to house its inmates, it’s going to end its contract with the federal immigration enforcement agency. The last ICE inmates will leave by the end of August.
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Mobile crisis teams and peer support services can help to serve those struggling with a mental health crisis and connect them to care, but can they replace police?
As calls for defunding the police increase, the question has become even more timely and was front and center at a hearing on Thursday of the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism for the Senate Judiciary Committee, which focused on policing and behavioral health.
Among both the subcommittee members and the other witnesses, there appeared to be broad support for improving police training in deescalation tactics and for engaging mobile crisis teams and other types of support. Some witnesses, however, questioned the ability of mobile teams to safely address and quickly respond to high-risk situations.
Senators spar over dispatching mental health experts to police calls Follow Us
Question of the Day
By Jeff Mordock - The Washington Times - Thursday, April 22, 2021
Democrats on a Senate Judiciary subcommittee Thursday championed dispatching mental health experts instead of police to certain emergency calls to reduce fatal police encounters, but Republicans said having unarmed civilians respond to emergencies puts the public at greater risk.
The hearing before the Senate Judiciary’s subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism comes as the upper chamber weighs multiple proposals aimed at increasing the use of mental health experts as first responders to people in crisis.