Circuit Court seeks status-offender diversion grant with Oakland Mediation

The Oakland County Circuit Court requested and the Public Health & Safety Committee approved a grant application to the State Court Administrative Office to fund a status-offender diversion pilot program in partnership with the Oakland Mediation Center.

Chris, manager of court business operations for the circuit court, told commissioners the program would offer community-based services for youth charged with status offenses such as truancy and related family conflicts that do not rise to formal court intervention. "We would like to apply for this grant to cover the funding for that as a pilot project," Chris said. The court described Oakland Mediation Center's work as trained mediators who will be specially prepared for youth-and-family mediation.

Commissioners asked about prior experience and training. Chris said Oakland Mediation Center mediators have completed SCAO-related training and that the mediators participating in the pilot would receive additional, youth-specific training.

The committee approved the grant application by roll call; the transcript records the health-and-safety committee vote as 8 ayes, 0 nays for the court item.

Why it matters The proposed pilot would expand community-based alternatives to formal juvenile-court processing for certain status offenses, a focus of recent juvenile-justice reform efforts, and could change how the circuit court handles lower-level youth cases if funded and implemented.

Implementation and next steps The circuit court will submit the application to the State Court Administrative Office and, if awarded, proceed with contracting and mediator training for the pilot project. Specific budget details for the pilot were not provided in the transcript.

Ending The committee approved the court's request and the court said it will pursue the grant and report back when additional details are available.