North Carolina Corrections Expands Specialty Mental Health Probation Supervision Pilot Program

In late 2015, the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS) announced it was expanding a specialty mental health probation supervision pilot program to Brunswick, McDowell, Guilford, Mecklenburg, Orange, and Durham counties. The program, Aligning Supervision Strategies for Individuals in need of Services and Treatment (NC ASSIST), trains probation and parole officers to better handle offenders with mental health challenges and connect them to community programs.

The new funding will add 12 more mental health probation case loads in six additional counties, about 480 offenders with mental health or addiction disorders will be supervised through the expansion. A key goal . . .