North carolina's chief justice issued a bold call to make treatment court services available to all eligible defendants across the state

This $1,885,440 Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance (CFDA 16.585 - Treatment Court Discretionary Grant Program) will enable the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts (NCAOC) to expand and enhance adult treatment courts across the state. Key objectives include:

Hiring an Adult and Veterans Court Management Specialist to support expansion and quality improvement of North Carolina's 56 existing adult, mental health, DWI, and veterans treatment courts operating in 38 counties. The project will also implement a new cloud-based case management system to strengthen supports for participants and enable data-driven continuous improvement. To increase statewide access, the NCAOC will establish new treatment courts and formalize partnerships between existing courts and jurisdictions without operational treatment courts. Additionally, the project will provide training on evidence-based practices for North Carolina's treatment court professionals and improve use of validated screening/assessment tools.

To achieve this vision, the north carolina administrative office of the courts (ncaoc) will work with the north carolina division of mental health developmental disabilities and substance use services and the division of adult correction in conjunction with other state and local partners to expand and enhance adult treatment courts. With 30 adult criminal recovery courts, six impaired driving courts, 11 veterans courts, and nine mental health recovery courts operating in 38 of the state's 100 counties, expansion entails growth into the remaining rural counties with no operational judicially managed accountability and recovery court (jmarc). The ncaoc seeks federal bureau of justice assistance funding to hire an adult and veterans court management specialist to expand and enhance our capacity and supports for the state's adult (criminal, mental health, driving while intoxicated, and veterans) jmarcs; purchase a cloud-based management information system to strengthen case management supports to treatment court participants, provide easily accessible data and supports for local jmarcs to engage in continuous quality improvement, and make local jmarc data available to the ncaoc for purposes of providing enhanced supports to the local jmarc and reports to the north carolina general assembly and federal partners; increase access to more eligible defendants across the state through implementation of new jmarcs, formal participation agreements between operational jmarcs and jurisdictions with no jmarc, and spanish translation of participant handbooks; provide high-quality training opportunities to the state's recovery court professionals to increase application of evidence-based and other best practices; and improve use of valid and reliable screening and assessment tools and evidence-based practices.