The Josephine County Board of Commissioners voted Dec. 4 to accept $2,331,632 in justice-reinvestment funding from the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission and to authorize a series of contracts and treatment-court grant agreements that primarily pass funds to local service providers and partially fund county positions.

Scott Hadd, director of Community Justice, told the board the award is largely pass-through money to community agencies that provide services to individuals involved with the criminal justice system, explaining the county’s share is calculated by the county’s share of the statewide supervised population. He said some of the funds will also pay for county positions such as probation officers and deputy district attorneys.

Specific approvals recorded in the meeting included a $83,486 pass-through contract with Women’s Crisis Support (10% of victim services allocation), a $35,780 contract with IV Safe House Alliance, and treatment court grants: $462,441 for the adult drug court (TCP-27-19), $331,295 for family treatment court (TCP-27-20), and $63,955 for mental health court (TCP-27-21). For each item the board voted 2–0, with Commissioner Barnett excused.

Hadd emphasized the program goal is prison diversion and building community services: “These justice reinvestment dollars are prison diversion monies. They’re intended to keep people out of prison, keep them in the community,” he said during the presentation. He added the county receives administrative costs to manage the grants.

Each contract and grant is set up as a state pass-through or joint county/state agreement; the board authorized the county to sign the agreements and to enter contracts with community providers to administer the services. The funding will support direct service providers and partially fund county staff positions assigned to treatment and supervision programs.

The board’s recorded votes for the grant and related contracts were all 2–0 (Commissioner Smith — Yes; Commissioner Black — Yes; Commissioner Barnett — Excused).