Hamilton County Juvenile Court Pretrial Diversion Docket Expansion

The Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program (JMHCP) seeks to increase public safety through an innovative, cross-system, collaborative response to individuals with mental illness who come in contact with the criminal or juvenile justice systems. This program is funded through Public Law 111-8 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2009). The program is designed to increase public safety by facilitating collaboration among the criminal justice, juvenile justice, and mental health and substance abuse treatment systems to increase access to services for offenders with mental illness. Activities under this initiative will encourage early intervention for 'system-involved' individuals with mental illness; provide new and existing mental health courts with various treatment options; maximize diversion opportunities for non-violent offenders with mental illness and co-occurring disorders; promote training for justice and treatment professionals on criminal justice processed and mental health and substance abuse issues; and facilitate communication, collaboration, and the delivery of support services among justice professionals, treatment and related service providers, and governmental partners.

The Hamilton County Juvenile Court will use the expansion grant to add a research-based substance abuse education program to the Hamilton County Pretrial Diversion Docket. The program, Teen Intervene, will serve all youth and families who have been assessed as being at-risk for future drug or alcohol dependence. Additionally, the project expansion will include the development of an infrastructure of informal, non-traditional linkages that will provide physical, emotional, social, recreational, educational, vocational, and spiritual support and resources for the youth and families on the docket. In 2006, the Hamilton County Juvenile Court partnered with the Mental Health/Recovery Services Board, Lighthouse, and Mental Health Access Point to plan, design, and implement a diversion mental health court (the pretrial diversion docket). The mission of the pretrial diversion docket is to provide a community collaborative model of service delivery which utilizes an interdisciplinary, integrated team approach to evidence-based mental health and substance abuse treatment for families and youth with serious emotional disorders who require specialized supported care to remain in the community and have had limited contact with the juvenile justice system.

CA/NCF