Colorado DHS Announces Public Health Interventions Funded by Marijuana Tax Revenue
DENVER, CO The Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS) this weekannounced12 total awards to communities to support behavioral health and law enforcement partnerships in collaboration with CDHS Office of Behavioral Health.
The awards will fund two distinct initiativesCo-Responder Programs and Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD).
Eight communities will implement Co-Responder Programs designed to divert individuals experiencing mental health crisis away from arrest and into immediate behavioral health assessment. Four jurisdictions will adopt Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD). Denver and Pueblo Counties along with the Cities of Longmont and Alamosa will implement LEAD.
Having been selected through a committee-based application process convened by CDHS, each of the four LEAD-awardee jurisdictions will receive up to $575,000 annually to operate LEAD pilot programs over three years.
LEADis a pre-booking diversion program designed to promote public health interventions while reducing the role of the criminal justice system in the management of substance use-related problems. The policy is touted by advocates as a positive step to change law enforcement culture where drug enforcement is concerned. LEAD isempirically shownto reduce recidivism, save money and improve police/community relations by giving police the infrastructure to steer low-level offenders toward supportive resources and away from criminalization. LEAD is already being implemented in multiple cities across the country including Seattle, Santa Fe and Albany. These awards create the opportunity for jurisdictions in Colorado to adopt this innovative model locally.
During the 2017 legislative session, theDrug Policy Allianceconvened theColorado LEAD Coalition, which included the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police, Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP), the Colorado Association of Local Public Health Officials (CALPHO) and the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition. The coalition successfully lobbied the Joint Budget Committee for an allocation from the Marijuana Tax Cash Fund in the2017-2018 state budgetto fund LEAD pilot programs in Colorado. This funding represents the first of its kind in the state to create meaningful alternatives to criminal justice involvement for Coloradans with mental health or substance use issues by increasing the treatment, public health and harm reduction infrastructures in awardee communities. Police in the four awardee jurisdictions will now have the opportunity to divert individuals with low-level drug and prostitution offenses into case management services rather than the criminal justice system.
Awardees look forward to the new opportunities created by this funding:
I am delighted and excited about this grant, saysDenver District Attorney Beth McCann. Too many people suffering from substance abuse and mental health disorders are being warehoused in our countrys jails, overwhelming the system while not addressing the substance abuse problems and mental health needs. I support this and other efforts to divert appropriate individuals from the jails and get them the help they need to get out and stay out of the criminal justice system.
For over twenty years Longmont has realized that health issues are not solved or mitigated though arrest and prosecution, saysPublic Safety Chief Michael Butler of Longmont. Invoking the criminal justice system to respond to certain aspects of our humanness is not only ineffective, it most likely creates more significant safety issues ...
