Sec. 5. Cost comparisons; reports. The Department of Health and Human Services shall, within existing resources, prepare a report comparing the cost of opening additional forensic beds at Bangor Mental Health Institute with the cost of providing additional community-based resources that would divert people with mental illness from jail and would help prevent inmates with mental illness from returning to jail. The Department of Health and Human Services shall provide the report to the Joint Standing Committee on Health and Human Services and the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety no later than March 30, 2006.

Sec. 6. Crisis stabilization units; report. The Department of Health and Human Services, in collaboration with a statewide mental health services association, shall report to the Joint Standing Committee on Health and Human Services and the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety no later than March 30, 2006 regarding what enhancements are needed in Maine's crisis stabilization units to accommodate Maine's jail inmates in order to provide them with needed crisis stabilization and to avoid or reduce hospital stays.

Sec. 7. Inmate social security income; report. The Department of Corrections, in collaboration with a statewide sheriffs' association, shall report to the Joint Standing Committee on Health and Human Services and the Joint Standing Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety no later than March 30, 2006 regarding the practice of collecting premiums from the United States Social Security Administration for reporting inmates who receive social security income and any resulting loss of disability status for those inmates. The report must document the jails engaged in this process, the income generated, how that income was spent and the impact on inmates and include recommendations regarding the process that do not result in financial harm to jails.

SUMMARY

This bill provides that a jail may not be required to dispense medications in blister packs and that a jail's medication formulary must have the same medications available as in other state institutions. It also provides that when possible the Department of Health and Human Services must assist jails with the purchase of medications through joint purchasing agreements. The bill requires the Department of Health and Human