Centre County Pursuing Grant to Add Caseworker in Public Defender’s Office

Centre County is seeking grant funding to add a caseworker to the public defender’s office who would coordinate a range of client services beyond the legal system.

The county Board of Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved a request from the public defender and criminal justice planning offices to apply for up to $250,000 from the federally-funded Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program through the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency .

“We’re looking to improve coordination and access to services for people with mental health/behavioral health/intellectual disabilities and/or substance use disorders who encounter the system by providing and coordinating wraparound supports for individuals such as increasing access to affordable and supportive housing, employment, referrals to mental or behavioral health treatment services,” Karri Hull, director of criminal justice planning, said.

A caseworker position was identified as a CJP priority during strategic planning in 2020, Hull said, and the department has been waiting for the right funding opportunity to come along.

The grant would support salary, benefits and supplies for a new employee housed in the public defender’s office. If awarded, funding would begin Oct. 1 and run through Sept. 30, 2024.

“If I had a dollar for every time a judge or a DA said to me, ‘Dave find me a place to send this person convince me they won’t come back,’ I could retire,” Chief Public Defender David Crowley said.

“Holistic public defense is cutting edge stuff and it takes into account that we’re not just here to take care of the immediate problem but to maybe point people in the right direction to keep them from recycling back into the system.”

PCCD is making $7 million available from the program this year, but Hull said the application process is “highly competitive.” She noted that the county has an existing JAG grant that supports other items in the strategic plan, “so this falls right in suit.”

Commissioner Michael Pipe said he thinks the initiative will be “a top contender” for a grant.

“This would really, I would hope, set you apart from your peers,” Pipe told Crowley. “There are many public defenders across the state that I think really need this.”

Pipe added that he hopes the program is implemented and successful enough that other public defenders throughout Pennsylvania emulate it.

“It really does solve not just the legal, but also the trauma, the mental health, the treatment aspects,” he said. “We need to do both. Your office should focus on the legal in terms of your lawyers and supporting folks but recognize that there are additional things we can bring to bear to heal these people and help them out in the future.”

Commissioner Mark Higgins said the initiative would continue the county’s anti-recidivism efforts that date back to 2014 and have contributed to reducing the number of inmates at the correctional facility from about 260 to about 130 during that time.

“This is a great idea. When people become involved with the criminal justice system, as long as they’re not violent, we would prefer they weren’t sentenced if there’s any way we can avoid that, and we certainly don’t want them coming back and round-tripping through the system,” Higgins said. “If somebody does have to be involved with the criminal justice system, obviously our preference is that they’re involved once and we never see them again.”

Commissioner Steve Dershem said he appreciated the efforts by Hull and Crowley to help individuals get the assistance they need.

“I appreciate both of you working on this because I think it makes Centre County a whole lot better place and it gives us an opportunity to not only make sure that folks that don’t need to be in the system are not but at the same time help the ones that get caught up in the system and have full opportunity to be productive,” Dershem said.

Later in the meeting, commissioners unanimously approved acceptance of another PCCD grant that will fund a social worker in the State College Police Department.