Award Information
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2008, $200,000)
The Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program is designed to assist states, state courts, local courts, units of local government, and Indian tribal governments in developing and establishing drug courts for substance-abusing adult and juvenile offenders. Drug court programs funded by the Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program are required by law to target nonviolent offenders. The Program supports the following activities:
adult drug court implementation, single jurisdiction drug court enhancement, statewide drug court enhancement, and planning efforts.
Mendocino County Health and Human Services Agency (HHSA), formerly the Mendocino County Department of Public Health, will use the single jurisdiction drug court enhancement grant to increase its Adult Drug Court (ADC) capacity by expanding treatment staffing levels, broadening eligibility criteria, and strengthening skills in research-based treatment for clients with methamphetamine addictions. Because ADC eligibility is currently limited to convicted felons, many potential participants cannot be enrolled, including most women, failed Proposition 36 misdemeanants, and non-felon offenders with methamphetamine addictions.
ADC partners will revise program procedures to facilitate the participation of both felons and non-felons. By default, this strategy will increase the number of women who are eligible to participate, since the percentage of female misdemeanants is higher than the percentage of female felons, and allow the ADC to intervene prior to the commission of felonies.
HHSA's Division of Alcohol and Other Drug Programs (AODP) will recruit and hire a full-time Substance Abuse Therapist to assist in managing an increased ADC caseload. Adding this position will increase program capacity by 50% and increase the treatment caseload from 30 to 45 participants. The new Substance Abuse Therapist will complete the Comprehensive Drug Court Provider Training Series offered through the National Drug Court Institute, a weeklong research-based training. In addition, five treatment staff will participate in the California Association of Drug Court Professionals Annual Training Conference each year.
CA/NCF