County, city shoot for $1.2 million diversion program grant

The U.S. Department of Justice grant would fund the creation of a specialty court aimed at putting moderate-risk offenders in touch with community resources and helping them avoid a criminal record.

Catching a charge can radically alter the trajectory of one’s life. A conviction, even for a minor crime, can make finding employment more challenging and taking part in democratic or civic life more difficult or even impossible. It could also be the start of a lifelong tango with law enforcement and the criminal justice system.

Laramie City Councilor Sharon Cumbie told her fellow councilors Tuesday she had seen her fair share of people fall into this trap. Even when they get probation, the individuals are frequently left to fend for their own when it comes to mental health or material resources.

“Having been a therapist in town, working with young adults, 18-35, I’ve seen how once they get into the probationary system, without support, it can result in a spiraling process where they keep getting deeper and deeper into the system,” she said. “They’re failing probation; yet, we don’t have support to help pull them out of that nosedive.”

Government officials are hoping a new specialty court could tackle this very issue.

Both the Laramie City Council and the Albany County Commission voiced their support this week for a federal grant application seeking funds for the creation of a diversion program.

The total grant is $1.2 million across four years with a 25 percent match — meaning, if it’s awarded, the city and county will pitch in a collective $300,000. That works out to $37,500 from each entity, each year for four years.

The funding provides for the creation and operation of a local city/county diversion program, as well as the hiring of a diversion coordinator.

Currently, the Albany County Court Supervised Treatment Program houses local specialty courts like DUI Court and Drug Court. But those outfits serve convicted, high-risk, high-need offenders, as City Attorney Bob Southard explained during the council meeting Tuesday.

“Those people are convicted, they have sentences hanging over their heads, but they’ve been determined to be candidates to try to get their life in a different spot rather than sending them off to prison or jail.”

A diversion program is different. It’s designed to catch people entering the system, who have been charged but not convicted. If such an individual qualifies to take part in the diversion program, their journey through the court system would be paused as they sign a “diversion contract” committing them to treatment, restitution, community service or other requirements. Upon completion of those terms, their charge would be dropped.

Southard said this serves two goals. First, it keeps the individual’s record clean.

“And No. 2, the idea is to address the underlying behaviors that got them into this in the first place and, one hopes, get their life on a different track,” he said.

Specialty Courts Director Heather Carter told council the program would make meaningful investments to get people out of the situations and patterns that brought them into contact with the police.

“We would also then be paying for any treatment that comes up,” she said. “Part of the transitional needs we would look at include housing, job placement assistance, education assistance — if they needed help with HiSET — those kinds of even basic things. If an individual is having concerns with homelessness and that’s something that led to the offense, that would be something that we could cover as part of this grant as a transitional need.”

That housing will likely start as a motel voucher, but Carter said she hopes to eventually strike a deal with a local property management group to pay monthly rent for a reliable, consistent location.

According to Carter and the grant application, the program could help 20 people in its first year, ramping up to nearly 50 individuals by its fourth year. Carter said these are conservative estimates that assume the program is only helping those who need the most intensive, time-consuming help.

“I do anticipate if we have more of the low-risk, low-need (individuals), we could provide way more case management services — with the hope that we could expand the program in the future,” Carter said.

Individuals could spend as little as two months completing the terms of their diversion contract or as much as a year, depending on what they need to do and how quickly they do it.

“In the long run, this would reduce workloads of attorneys (and) dockets for the courts — and provide people with the opportunity to not have charges on their record that would affect housing, employment, school applications in the future,” Carter said. “If we do not get the grant, I will be finding creative ways to look for other funding opportunities because this would be a good opportunity for people in our community.”

Carter presented to both the city council and the county commission on Tuesday. Each voted unanimously to support the application.

The grant is made available through the Bureau of Justice Assistance, which is housed in the Office of Justice Programs, which is itself housed in the U.S. Department of Justice.

Carter said her office will find out in August whether it won the grant.