Intake-Based Diversion: Strategic Innovations from the Mental Health/Juvenile Justice Action Network explores probation intake as a critical intervention point within the juvenile justice system. The Mental Health/Juvenile Justice Action Network worked with eight states to create more opportunities for youth with mental health needs to be appropriately diverted to community-based treatment at their earliest points of contact with the juvenile justice system. Texas was the one state to focus on probation intake as a critical diversion point.
This document follows Texas’s work and outcomes in the first year of implementing its probation intake diversion program, named the Front-End Diversion Initiative (FEDI). FEDI was intended to divert youth with mental health-related disorders away from adjudication, coordinate services through quality case management, link youth and their families to formal and informal community resources and supports, and improve the youth and family’s perceived level of functioning and satisfaction of services.
The National Center for Youth Opportunity and Justice (NCYOJ) originally developed and maintained this resource. The NCYOJ was operated by Policy Research, Inc. and operated from 2001 to 2022 and was formerly known as the National Center for Mental Health and Juvenile Justice. The NCYOJ improved life opportunities for youth through systems and practice improvement initiatives.
This resource should be viewed as a reference document. It has not been updated since its publication. In addition, this document has not been made 508 compliant. If you would like a 508 compliant version of this document, please email communications@prainc.com.
This resource was first shared in 2012.
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