The Ashland Police Department (APD) recently received $95,000 through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program, which funds a broad range of public safety and crime prevention efforts in communities across Massachusetts. This funding will support the Ashland, Sherborn, Holliston and Hopkinton (ASHH) regional jail diversion program that focuses on assisting police in their encounters with individuals with mental health or addiction issues, according to a press release from Senator Karen Spilka’s office.
The ASHH Jail Diversion Program was launched in fall 2015 and pairs a full-time embedded mental health crisis clinician from Advocates, Inc. with police officers from ASHH police departments. The program also provides mental health training to police officers in the four-town collaborative. The primary goal of the program is to divert non-violent offenders who may be struggling with a mental illness away from the criminal justice system and into community based behavioral health services. The model pairs a master’s-level clinician with patrol officers, 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., five days a week.
Issue Date:
January, 2017
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