Benton County Veterans Treatment Court Enhancement Discretionary Grant

The Benton County Veterans Treatment Court (VTC) is located in Arkansas and is

submitting this application to enhance its VTC.

This application is for Category 2 VTC Enhancement.

The program is VTC Type B.

The total amount of funding requested is $500,000 over 36 months

The target population of the VTC is comprised of violent and non-violent offenders (Type B)

who have served in the military and struggle with substance abuse and/or mental health issues. The VTC accepts offenders at all risk levels and will accept those charged with most offense types. Cases excluded include homicide and sexual offenses. The VTC is both pre- and post-adjudication. Eligible candidates must be veterans of the U.S. military who reside in Benton or Washington County, have new felony charge(s), revocations or parole violations due to substance use or mental health diagnosis, active or recent history of a SUD or mental health diagnosis, are 18+, and qualify for services from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The court uses the Veterans Health Services of the Ozarks (VHSO) as its primary partner to provide treatment and services to address opioid, stimulant, and other SUD reduction strategies. The VHSO also offers a variety of MAT Services. All VTC participants must be in the program for at least 15 months. The program has four phases, the last being 6 months in length.

The proposed enhancement seeks to enhance and increase services of the VTC as well as

monitor and evaluate the program. Funding will be used to hire a full-time probation officer, fund a portion of time (20%) of a case manager, court coordinator (20%) (VTC Components #3 & #6), fund the increase costs of the randomized phone drug screening program for the new participants (VTC Component #6), provide training (VTC Component #9) and partner with an evaluation team to monitor and evaluate the program enhancements (VTC Component #9). With additional personnel the total number of new court participants will increase by a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 21 (VTC Components #3 & #6). Please see the following pages regarding these goals: 2, 3, 13, 14, 15.

This jurisdiction has received a drug court grant from OJP for its drug court program only, not its veterans treatment court program. Funding for its drug court included: 2008-DC-BX-0038 and 2011-DC-BX-0110. It is not leveraging any other federal resources to support its drug or veterans court programs.