Purpose: The Brooklyn Forensic Link Program has been operational since 1999 and is funded to link seriously mentally ill offenders returning to the Brooklyn community from the NYC Correctional system into services to insure that they achieve their optimum level of function and avoid hospitalization and/or re-incarceration.

Description: The program provides Court advocacy, linkage from incarceration to the community, design of an individualized treatment plan by professional mental health program staff, and intensive transition case management for a period of up to two years in order to stabilize and maintain the client in the community, avoid homelessness, avoid re-arrest and avoid unplanned emergency room hospitalizations. The program is designed to insure that the transition from jail to community is a continuum that includes housing, treatment, medication, and help in the acquisition of Medicaid and other benefits.
Identification and referral of potential mentally ill clients may be made to the program by any source within the Correctional or Criminal Justice System. Clients must have a DSM-IV Axis 1 diagnosis which meets the NYS criteria for severe and persistent mental illness and who would have difficulty functioning in the community without assistance and support.

Funding: The program is funded by the New York City Department of Mental Health.