In September 2005, the Bureau of Justice Assistance of the U.S. Department of Justice funded ten demonstration projects under its new Community-Based Problem-Solving Criminal Justice Initiative. The following edited excerpt was taken from Athens County’s winning proposal.
The Athens County Municipal Court Substance Abusing/Mentally Ill Court Project is designed to divert individuals with dual disorders of mental illness and substance abuse with misdemeanor level offenses from incarceration by providing intensive community treatment and supervision. The Court will contract with a dually certified mental health and alcohol/substance abuse treatment agency to provide a “boundary spanner” and treatment team based upon the New Hampshire-Dartmouth Integrated Dual Disorder Treatment model. The Court Project team will provide comprehensive, assertive services according to this model.
Consultations with other justice system players and community collaborators confirmed the need for the criminal justice and behavioral healthcare system to work closely together in a comprehensive and intensive approach to try to break the cycle of relapse and recidivism and intervene positively in peoples’ lives. Although the emphasis of this program is development of specialized services for persons with dual-diagnoses, another vital element is centralized screening, assessment and diversion of all mentally ill or clinically dependent offenders to the most appropriate court program. The program will operate in a rural, economically distressed, Appalachian County that has a history of strong collaborative partnerships between the judicial system and behavioral healthcare system.