0339-1005 Divert Juveniles from Criminal Justice

For a competitive grant program to be administered by the office of the commissioner of probation for cities and towns, acting either individually or in concert, to pilot or expand multidisciplinary approaches to divert juveniles and young adults from the juvenile and criminal justice systems prior to arrest or arraignment through coordinated programs for prevention and intervention serving youths and their families, including, but not limited to: (i) connecting youths to mental health services; (ii) providing youth development activities and mentoring; (iii) promoting school safety, family home visits, juvenile diversion programs and restorative justice and mediation programs; and (iv) providing assistance for families and schools to navigate the legal system; provided, that eligible applicants may partner with nonprofit organizations to provide programs and services; provided further, that the office shall give preference to applications that: (a) clearly outline a comprehensive plan for municipalities to collaborate with law enforcement, schools, community-based organizations and government agencies to address juvenile delinquency and young adult crime; (b) include written commitments of municipalities, law enforcement agencies, schools, community-based organizations and government agencies to collaborate; (c) make a written commitment to match grant funds with a 25 per cent matching grant provided by either municipal or private contributions; and (d) identify a local governmental unit to serve as the fiscal agent for the proposed programs and services; provided further, that administrative costs for approved grant applications shall not exceed 5 per cent of the value of the grant; and provided further, that not later than March 15, 2021, the office shall submit a report to the house and senate committees on ways and means that shall include, but not be limited to: (1) the number of grant applications received; (2) the number of grants approved; (3) the amount of funds issued to each grantee; and (4) details regarding each grantee, including geographic location, services offered, organizations with which the grantee collaborated, matching funds provided and the number of juveniles and young adults served