Referrals to Justice Diversion Programs in Franklin County
In some cases, a person entering the justice system may be referred to a Specialized Docket by an attorney or judge. These dockets offer heavy supervision for defendants with the greatest need, providing behavioral health treatment and recovery resources within a diversion program intended to reduce repeated offenses. There are eight (8) Specialized Dockets in Franklin County, covering veterans, mental health, human trafficking, family dependency, and several types of adult and juvenile drug courts. These courts have been reporting data on referrals since January 1, 2017, although the Supreme Court of Ohio standardized data collection from all dockets beginning on July 1, 2019.
Additional information about court-supervised diversion programs
Each of these Specialized Dockets collects detailed information on each person referred to the docket, keeping track of demographics, clinical assessments, treatment status, substances of use, and treatment status. For the family dependency docket, information is also collected on the children of defendants. All Franklin County Specialized Dockets submit data monthly to the Supreme Court of Ohio, and a data sharing arrangement with the Supreme Court of Ohio allows this data to be sent to Franklin County Public Health, to be used in work related to the prevention and intervention of substance use.
The data on this page shows information on all referrals to Specialized Dockets in Franklin County since January 1, 2017. Standardized collection of data from Ohio dockets began on July 1, 2019, but some Franklin County dockets had already been collecting data before this date. This data includes information on trends in the number of referrals over time, the demographics of referrals, and the main substances of use reported by referrals. These data are shown for all dockets, as well as separated out by individual docket where possible. This data may potentially be used to identify trends in substances of use in justice-involved populations, identify populations for priority intervention, or compare with other populations of interest.