Jefferson VTC

The Administrative Office of the Courts is seeking $500,000 over four years for the Jefferson County, KY Veterans Treatment Court (JCVTC) under the Adult Drug Court and Veterans Treatment Court Discretionary Grant Program (BJA-0-2021-46003), Category 2: Veterans Treatment Courts, Type A.  JCVTC is a post-plea program that began in 2012 and targets high risk/high needs nonviolent adult veterans charged with felony or misdemeanor crimes who are statutorily eligible for diversion or probation. 

Jefferson Co., Kentucky encompasses the Louisville, KY urban area.  Thirty minutes from Ft. Knox, the county is home to 17.2% of all veterans in Kentucky. In 2019, 42.9% of all arrests were for drugs.  Jefferson Co. also saw an increase of 39% in overdose deaths in 2020 over 2019.    

The project proposes to add 48 participants over four years (an increase of 71.4% over 2019 numbers). The average length of program participation for all JCVTC participants entering in 2018 was 13.8 months.  Minimum participation was 8.8 months and maximum was18.2 months. 

Medication assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid/alcohol disorders is not denied to any participant before, during, or after program participation. The program agrees that MAT participation is a medical decision between the participant and medical provider. There is local access to all forms of MAT.

To address the opioid and rising methamphetamine crises, opioid and methamphetamine reduction plans are implemented as outlined in Attachment: Substance Use Reduction Plan.  Goals listed below address substance use and mental health disorders in the high risk/high needs population.

Based on the NADCP Best Practice Standards (BPS), goals will include (1) hiring a dedicated case manager to expand capacity to 48 participants over 4 years; (BPS 1, 9, page 10); (2) enhancing treatment and recovery support services  through a partnership with Seven Counties Services (BPS 5, 6; page 10).  All goals/objectives will be independently evaluated via outcome data based on Specialty Court MIS and process evaluation data by the evaluation team. This proposal conforms to the framework of the State Strategy of Substance Abuse Treatment.
The JCVTC received an implementation grant from OJP in 2012 but is not currently leveraging any federal funding. This urban area has several Qualified Opportunity Zones (see Attachment: Qualified Opportunity Zones) (Dept. of Treasury, 2020). Thus, priority consideration is requested for this proposal.