The Scarborough Police Department hopes to have a case manager in place this spring for its new program to divert high-risk people charged with minor offenses away from the criminal justice system by providing them with community-based services to address addiction and mental health issues.
The Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program, which started in the fall, recently received a $286,065 grant from the Department of Justice that will go toward services including temporary housing, food, clothing, psychiatric and counseling services, and transportation to those services as needed. It will also fund a three-year salary and training program for a case manager, a position Chief Mark Holmquist said he’d like to fill by April.
The program, which Scarborough launched in November, is part of a national effort on behalf of the Public Defender Association, a nonprofit pushing for legal system reform and the creation of alternate paths to justice rather than punishment.
The program is designed to reduce reliance on the formal criminal justice system and “attack at a root cause,” Holmquist said.
“It’s a program that provides various proactive ways to divert high-risk individuals to community-based harm reduction intervention,” Holmquist told The Forecaster.
These “high-risk individuals” may be suffering from substance use disorder, homelessness, or mental health disorders.
“The program intervenes with an intensive case management model,” said Lauren Dembski-Martin, the police department’s social services navigator who has taken on the role of LEAD program manager. “We receive the referral from the officer and then meet with the individuals and get them connected with services and hope that then they don’t ever experience the same criminal activity, due to the unmet needs, because they’ve met those needs at that point.”
Since November, the program has had nine intakes with a range of cases.
“We’ve done a couple of charges with shoplifting or engaging in prostitution,” Dembski-Martin said. “We are still receiving referrals to substance abuse.”
There are currently 52 LEAD programs nationwide, including four in New England, with more to be launched in the near future. There was a LEAD program in Bangor, but that has since “dwindled out,” according to Dembski-Martin, leaving Scarborough’s program as the only one in Maine.
“Without funding, it is hard to keep a program like this up and running,” she said.
When a case manager is hired, the goal is to take on more cases and make a lasting impact.
“Just giving them a chance,” Dembski-Martin said. “No matter what that unmet need is, we’re giving them a chance and some hope to navigate the tricky systems that exist, which is often why folks get caught up in the legal system.”
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