Alaska Court System gets $1.2 million federal grant for therapeutic court screening

The Alaska Court System plans to hire an intake coordinator for its therapeutic courts in Anchorage and Palmer and assign a dedicated case manager to Anchorage participants under a $1,224,903 federal grant. The U.S. Department of Justice first obligated the money Oct. 22.

The grant serves adults with co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders, meaning people dealing with both at once. Award documents say people in these courts have faced delays entering treatment. The documents tie those delays to outdated procedures and recent turnover on the court teams.

Under the project, the intake coordinator would run standardized screening with validated tools that measure a person's risk and needs. The case manager would support Anchorage participants going through competency determination. An outside evaluation contractor would study whether the courts follow treatment practices, how participants fare and how well the program runs. The grant period runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, 2030.

Partners include the Alaska Division of Behavioral Health, the Municipality of Anchorage and local behavioral health providers.

The award documents list the project's goals: better identification and engagement of people with co-occurring disorders, more program capacity, lower recidivism, higher treatment completion and stronger sustainability of therapeutic courts statewide.

Alaska's first therapeutic court began in Anchorage in July 1998, according to a federal evaluation that examined whether the Anchorage model could work in other Alaska jurisdictions. It described the program as voluntary, with successful completion able to lead to reduced charges or sentences.

The 2024 Alaska Scorecard said therapeutic court administrators have contracts with local substance use treatment providers to support ready access, but mental health services in communities remain limited and people do not always get immediate access to them.

At a House Judiciary Committee hearing May 1, Alaska Court System general counsel Nancy Meade said entry to the programs is "limited by the amount of treatment available, which is a huge limiting factor." She said participants are supervised by a team of eight or nine people for 18 months.