Denver Second Chance Offender Reentry (SCORE) Project

The Second Chance Act provides a comprehensive response to the increasing number of incarcerated adults and juveniles who are released from prison, jail, and juvenile residential facilities and are returning to their communities. The FY 2013 Second Chance Act Reentry Program for Juveniles with Co-Occurring Substance Abuse and Mental Health Disorders seeks to reduce long-term alcohol and other substance abuse among juveniles in secure confinement facilities and to improve drug treatment and mental health services provided to them during their confinement and through the completion of their court supervision. A secure confinement facility may include a juvenile detention center, juvenile correctional facility, or staff-secure facility. Eligible juveniles must have been confined under juvenile court jurisdiction.

The Colorado Judicial Department, 2nd Judicial District requests funding to implement reentry programming to focus on chronic juvenile offenders with co-occurring substance abuse/mental health disorders who are in secure confinement facilities. The proposed program will serve juveniles in the City and County of Denver through a judicial collaborative that will provide trauma-informed substance abuse treatment, life skills and related reentry services. The Denver Second Chance Offender Reentry (SCORE) Project will ensure access to substance abuse and mental health services tailored to the unique needs of this population. The proposed program will serve 70 juvenile offenders with treatment level substance abuse and/or co-occurring disorders with the evidence-based Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach (ACRA) Assertive Community Care (ACC) model and will provide CRAFT to 70 families/concerned significant others over a two year period. Goals for the project are to: (1) increase access and availability for direct evidence-based substance abuse treatment services for 50 juvenile offenders annually; (2) implement the Community Reinforcement Approach and Family Training (CRAFT) method for concerned significant others of delinquent youth re-entering to the community; and (3) reduce recidivism rates among program participants. The proposed project will create a comprehensive strategy to mitigate the harmful effects of confinement and reentry upon these high-risk, high-needs youth through the provision of evidence-based substance abuse and mental health services that will decrease recidivism, promote positive functioning and ensure public safety.
CA/NCF