Priority Access Diversion News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Efforts to help homeless people get out of the criminal justice system and into more social services might get a boost Tuesday night. That’s when the City Council will vote on a proposed $254,000 grant to run a pilot Homeless Court program. - ADVERTISEMENT - The money, which comes from a Community Development Block Grant, would run the new Homeless Court through June 30, 2022, and would include the hiring of an additional full-time Homeless Court Coordinator in the City Prosecutor’s office, according to a report to the City Council from Health and Human Services Director Kelly Colopy. The...

- ADVERTISEMENT - Starting this week, anyone facing of a misdemeanor in Long Beach will now be considered for the program if there’s evidence the defendant has a mental health condition or substance-abuse disorder, City Prosecutor Doug Haubert announced Tuesday. Before, the program—known as Priority Access Diversion (PAD)—was only open to people who were already in custody and were facing a minimum of one year in county jail. Haubert’s office created PAD in 2018 to offer repeat offenders with drug and mental health problems the option of going into live-in treatment programs instead o...