Community Justice

Community Justice Department: The Community Justice Department promotes the safety of Missoula County citizens, the protection and healing of crime victims, the fair and just treatment of defendants and offenders, the ongoing improvement and coordination of the justice system’s response to crime, and the prevention of crime and the reduction of recidivism. The department collaborates with Missoula City and County courts, City and County Attorney’s offices, law enforcement agencies, and other criminal justice partners and stakeholders to re-imagine justice, enhance public safety, increase innovative and evidence-based services, fair treatment, and dignity for all people involved in the justice system.

CJD consists of the Crime Victim Advocate Division, Justice Initiatives Division, the Rural Program and provides coordination of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC).

• The Crime Victim Advocate Division provides free and confidential assistance to victims of relationship violence, sexual assault and stalking by offering advocacy and resource information in civil and criminal matters.
• Justice Initiatives uses a data-driven approaches to strengthen the local criminal justice system to meet community needs by increasing resources through grant funding to support cross-departmental training, collaborative problem-solving, policy development, relationship-building, program and service development, and information sharing. Current initiatives include improving the responses to relationship violence, sexual violence and child abuse; safely reducing the jail population though targeted services to defendants; addressing ethnic and racial disparities in the justice system; effectively responding to mental health issues to divert people from higher levels of intervention; and reducing vicarious trauma in justice system workers.
• The Rural Program increases support to victims of relationship and sexual violence in rural and isolated areas through increasing victim advocacy services, providing civil legal services and direct emergency financial assistance; it improves victim response by providing training and strengthening collaboration between professionals who serve rural victims; and it prevents future victimization by providing teen dating violence prevention programming to rural youth and a trauma-informed parenting support group for survivors.
• The Missoula County commissioners established the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council as a formal committee, made up of key criminal justice system stakeholders and policymakers, to identify, analyze and solve multi-agency systemic issues within the justice system.

2024 MacArthur Grant: Missoula County and Homeword have been selected to participate in the Just Home Project, a national initiative by the MacArthur Foundation and the Urban Institute to address the connection between homelessness and incarceration. Missoula County will receive $246,254 to develop intervention strategies aimed at disrupting the cycle of homelessness and repeated interactions with the criminal justice system. The planning process will involve community engagement to explore the feasibility of building housing for those affected and consider policy changes to remove barriers to housing. Upon completing this planning phase, the County may receive additional funding to implement the strategy.

The jail-homelessness cycle remains a persistent issue in Missoula County, with studies showing significant interaction between homeless individuals and law enforcement. A local study found that almost half of the homeless population had adversarial encounters with law enforcement, and 30% had been jailed during their current period of homelessness. The project aims to mitigate these issues by providing housing solutions for justice-involved individuals, increasing personal stability, and enhancing community safety. Missoula County, Homeword, and their partners hope to create sustainable housing options and reduce reliance on jails through this initiative.

The Just Home Project is part of a broader effort by the MacArthur Foundation to promote criminal justice reform and reduce over-incarceration. Since 2018, Missoula County has been involved in the MacArthur Foundation's Safety and Justice Challenge, receiving over $1.8 million in grants to improve pretrial and re-entry services, develop diversion programs, and reduce racial disparities in the justice system. Learn more.

Mobile crisis response team: Missoula County, Partnership Health Center, Missoula Fire Department and the City of Missoula launched a project to create the Mobile Support Team consisting of a licensed clinical social worker and an EMT to assess and assist a person in crisis. A case facilitator follows up with individuals to ensure they are connected to appropriate community resources. Mobile crisis teams like this have been proven to reduce jail bookings and emergency room visits, decrease arrests and prosecutions, and allow for more appropriate use of law enforcement and first responder time. Research shows that every dollar spent on mobile crisis saves $5 to $7 elsewhere in the mental health and criminal justice systems.

Partnership with UM’s National Native Children’s Trauma Center: This initiative aims to inform criminal justice employees of the devastating impacts of historical trauma of Native people and teach the practice of cultural humility.

Calibrate Pretrial Diversion Program: The Calibrate Pretrial Diversion Program, based in the Missoula County Attorney’s Office, provides an innovative way to address criminal cases. Calibrate seeks to reduce the number of individuals involved in the criminal justice system by diverting those deemed eligible at an early stage, thereby minimizing the negative impact on the participant, and saving taxpayer dollars, while still emphasizing community safety. The target population for Calibrate is first time, non-violent offenders. Participants in this voluntary program must adhere to a case plan that is tailored to their individual needs and circumstances. The Calibrate program uses the Risk-Need-Responsivity model to effect positive change with participants. Successful completion results in dismissal of the criminal charge. Pretrial diversion results in fewer individuals being involved both in the court system and the corrections system, resulting in a clear saving of taxpayer dollars. After five years in operation, Calibrate has seen an 87% success rate among enrollees.

Public Safety Study: In the fall of 2022, Missoula County began participating in a public safety study the University of Missouri, St. Louis, is conducting. Researchers will use this study to help develop and sustain innovative methods to make communities across the country safer. This started with a survey to identify and describe local trends in public safety, document current understanding of safety, identify what crimes are causing the biggest disruptions locally, and gather information from a broad range of stakeholders to develop an inclusive and community-driven definition and measurement of public safety. This study is being funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Safety and Justice Challenge Research Consortium grant. The Safety and Justice Challenge is a national initiative to safely reduce jail populations. It examines the efficiency of justice system processes and offers pretrial and re-entry programming and services based on local data and evidence-based screening methods. Missoula County is one of the 57 cities, counties and states participating in the consortium network. Since 2018, the County has received $1.8 million in grant funds from the MacArthur Foundation to reduce the jail population and recidivism. Learn more about jail diversion efforts.

Mobile crisis response team: Missoula County, Partnership Health Center, Missoula Fire Department and the City of Missoula launched a project to create the Mobile Support Team consisting of a licensed clinical social worker and an EMT to assess and assist a person in crisis. A case facilitator follows up with individuals to ensure they are connected to appropriate community resources. Mobile crisis teams like this have been proven to reduce jail bookings and emergency room visits, decrease arrests and prosecutions, and allow for more appropriate use of law enforcement and first responder time. Research shows that every dollar spent on mobile crisis saves $5 to $7 elsewhere in the mental health and criminal justice systems.

Riverwalk Crisis Center: Missoula County, in partnership with local healthcare providers, opened the Riverwalk Crisis Center in fall 2023. The Center is a community-based facility for people experiencing a behavioral health crisis.

People experiencing a behavioral health crisis often end up in the emergency department or jail if there is no other place for them to go, and local government leaders, healthcare agencies and community members have long identified the need for a 24-hour walk-in mental health care center. Approximately 30% of patients in Providence St. Patrick Hospital’s Emergency Department go there due to a behavioral health need, and the Riverwalk Crisis Center provides a more effective, cost-efficient option for treating them.

Missoula County contributed $1.5 million to make the center a reality, mainly from federal funds received through the American Rescue Plan Act.