Carbon County will receive over $100,000 to help people with substance abuse disorder, as well as those who are ending their incarceration.

On Thursday, the board of commissioners approved a $119,980 grant from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency to be used to provide diversion and reentry services to people with substance abuse disorder.

The funds will go through Carbon-Monroe-Pike Drug and Alcohol Commission, which will hire a program coordinator for the Law Enforcement Treatment Initiative and act as coordinator of the Carbon County Reentry Coalition.

The term of the grant is through Sept. 30, 2023.

Carbon County applied for the grant in October.

At that meeting, Rick Parsons, the county’s chief adult probation officer, said the grant is a noncompetitive solicitation grant that will support eight counties - Butler, Clinton, Dauphin, Fayette, Huntington, Northumberland, Somerset and Carbon - that had been identified as needing support with implementing law enforcement diversion programs, jail-based screening protocols and comprehensive reentry services.

In addition, The University of Pittsburgh Evaluation Research Unit, Overdose Reduction, Technical Assistance Center and the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General will be included in the initiative.

The initiative was first introduced in Carbon County in March 2019; but Parsons said in October that the program never gained strong traction in the county.

This grant is expected to change that.

There are three tracks in the drug initiative to get people the help they need.

The first track allows the individual or the family of the person to go to any law enforcement agency in Carbon County and ask for help with getting a referral through CMPDA.

The second track is a diversion track where a law enforcement officer chooses to make a referral for a person who would normally have been arrested for drug or alcohol related charges. If the person completes the program following the referral, the charges are dismissed.

The third track is at the district magistrate level where the district judge, in collaboration with the arresting officer and the courts, can divert the person to treatment instead of incarceration. Like the second track, if the person completes the program, then the charges are dismissed.